Why the Global South Will NEVER Trust America

Last week, world leaders gathered in Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference — a meeting that has increasingly become a barometer for the stability of the global order.

Over 115 countries were represented at this year’s conference, including more than 60 heads of state, 30 defense ministers, and 40 international organizations and the timing could not be more critical.

As we started 2026 we’ve seen the United States openly threaten to annex Greenland, we’ve seen the US government launch a military invasion into Venezuela for the sole reason of taking over the country’s oil, and we are now witnessing increased threats against Iran as Donald Trump contemplates another military strike.

Donald Trump wants you to believe he stopped 8 wars last year but in reality the US government has created more instability and chaos as Trump doubles down on one of the most aggressive foreign policies we’ve ever seen from any US President.

But interesting enough it was the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who became the highlight of the conference delivering a speech that received a standing ovation and left many people feeling optimistic about the future of the world.

But what if I told you everything said during Rubio’s speech was a complete façade and while Rubio tried to convince the world the United States is winning, the exact opposite is happening.

I’m going to break down every important word Rubio said during his speech and explain why the West is collectively walking into the biggest trap that will completely shift the balance of global power. Just look at this statement from US Senator Mark Kelly:

“It took a World War and eight decades to build the strongest alliance that this world had ever seen. It took less than a year to practically destroy it. When Secretary Rubio said the “old world order was dead” during his speech in Munich he was right. It’s dead because Donald Trump blew it up.

He thinks this somehow benefits us. He is wrong. Our allies no longer trust us. It was obvious in the more than a dozen meetings I had with Presidents, Prime Ministers and Defense and Foreign Ministers.

China is now more popular in Denmark than the United States. In Poland, the U.S. is 21 percent less popular than it used to be. This means these countries are looking elsewhere for trade and security — that makes you poorer and less safe.

I know there was a celebration at the end of the Munich Security Conference. Unfortunately, the champagne corks were popping in Beijing and Moscow.

To understand exactly what Senator Kelly is referring to just look at this graph from the Financial Times which shows an unbelievable trend. From Great Britain to Denmark, France to Germany, Italy and Spain, the United States reputation has plummeted to an all-time low across all of our European allies.

The United States reputation after 12 months of Trump’s second term in office

And when America’s reputation goes down, that usually means China’s reputation is improving and over the last few weeks we’ve seen a record number of trade deals signed into power and all of them are the result of countries realizing that tariffs, sanctions and an aggressive foreign policy from the US government is not in the best interest of the world.

Europe is now looking at a long term investment agreement with China and if you were following what happened during the first 6 weeks of 2026, you’ll know that no less than 6 of America’s closest allies including France, Ireland, South Korea, Finland, Canada, and the UK have all sent their respective leaders to Beijing to sign new trade deals with the Chinese government.

China has already won big in 2026

This shift began a few weeks earlier in Davos, Switzerland, when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced to the world the end of American hegemony and the existing world order. He argued that middle powers — countries like the UK and Canada — may not be superpowers, but they are still essential to the global economy, and they can no longer rely on old alliances alone. Instead, they must look elsewhere for new trade partnerships and long-term stability.

Canada is now spearheading a new agreement between the European Union and a 12-nation Indo-Pacific bloc to form one of the largest economic alliances in the world — designed specifically to work around Trump’s tariffs. The partnership would represent more than 1.5 billion people across over 40 countries, linking the supply chains of Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia directly with the European Union.

Trump campaigned on the promise of making “America First” but his administration is quickly realizing that “America First” now means “America alone” and to show you exactly how we got here and what it means for the future of our world, let’s now examine Marco Rubio’s speech.

Now don’t get me wrong, Marco’s speech was a powerful one, delivered with poise and passion that deeply resonated with Trump’s fan base who believes globalization has been a failure for the United States. Marco Rubio specifically targeted China in his speech and didn’t hold back blaming the rise of China for the West’s decline.

Rubio began his speech with the classic framing that China is responsible for the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States. He wants you to believe the Chinese government gives unfair advantages to its companies like Huawei who receive subsidies. But if you simply fact check this, you’ll find this is exactly what the US government also does as well. Fossil Fuel firms in the US receive over $31 billion dollars in government funding every year and America’s most famous entrepreneur Elon Musk has received billions of dollars of funding which has been crucial to Tesla’s survival.

Let’s just stop for a second and ask a simple question. Whose decision was it to offshore American manufacturing to China? Did China make threats to American CEOs and force companies like Apple to manufacture their products in China? Or is there another reason? Instead of listening to politicians like Rubio through out baseless claims let’s go right to the top and listen to Apple’s CEO reveal the real reason US companies go to China

It’s amazing how many people fail to realize this point. China is not a cheap manufacturer, since the turn of the century wages in China have increased significantly as Chinese workers consistently earn more than many other developing countries throughout Asia. But listen to what Rubio blames next in his speech:

Once again, this was clearly aimed at China. Rubio wants you to believe China’s military spending is a growing threat to global stability — yet just last month Trump proposed raising U.S. military spending to roughly $1.5 trillion by 2027, the largest increase in modern history.

And then comes the claim that China is “using hard power to pursue its interests.” Really? Only weeks ago the United States carried out a military operation in Venezuela, after which Washington openly moved to control and manage the country’s oil exports.

In fact, U.S. officials even confirmed that oil taken under U.S. oversight is now being sold directly to China — undermining the idea that the intervention was about preventing Chinese purchases altogether.

So the issue was never whether China could buy Venezuelan oil. The issue was who controls the revenue and the system around it. Once again we just continue to see double standards and completely hypocrisy from the White House, but it doesn’t stop there.

Once again Rubio makes a false claim that China is exploiting natural resources like oil to hurt the US. But we just proved this theory completely false. It was the US not China, who launched a military invasion in South America for oil. And as far as climate change and the investment of renewable energy? Rubio might think this is a “cult” and not worthy of long term investment, but there is no better example of success in renewable energy than China, who is now the undisputed world leader of renewable energy. From wind turbines to hydro dams to solar panels, China leads the world in every single category and to understand why this matters you simply need to examine the massive lead China has built over the US, and every other nation, in terms of electricity production. In 2024, China produced more electricity than the US, Europe, and India combined, and if you ever wonder which nation will win the AI race, just look at which nation is best positioned to power their future.

China owns the future of electricity

But this is where Marco Rubio’s speech takes a very revealing turn as begins inviting Europe to join the United States on what he frames as a shared historical path. Rubio openly reflects on a time when Western powers spread across the globe, and then laments that after the end of WWII, and for the first time since the age of Columbus, the West was forced to contract.

He even describes the collapse of European empires as a “terminal decline” brought about by communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings. But what he calls decline was, for much of the world, independence. Between 1945 and roughly 1980, more than eighty countries — mostly across Africa and Asia — broke free from colonial rule. In 1945, nearly one-third of humanity still lived under the UK, French, or American empires, yet within a single generation those formal colonial systems had largely disappeared.

For the Global South this wasn’t collapse, it was liberation. Yet in Rubio’s mind countries gaining their independence was bad, because it meant the West was losing its power and influence in the world. And that leads to the real message of the speech: a call for the West to revive its dominance. Rubio instructed his European counterparts to be proud of their heritage and defend their civilization, a message that doubles as both a cultural and immigration signal, while urging Europe to help “renew the greatest civilization in human history.”

In other words, Rubio’s speech had very little to do with security which of course was the main theme of the Munich Security Conference, it had everything to do with asking the Europeans to join the US on a new mission to reassert control over the Global South. That’s why Rubio’s speech is so provocative: it doesn’t describe a cooperative future, it describes a return to hierarchy — a world where Western power once again directs the trajectory of the Global South.

But the biggest mistake Rubio made with this speech is failing to realize that over 88% of the world’s population now lives in the Global South and after Trump destroyed the world order, developing countries around the world now have options. Just look at Latin America for example and how they have shifted away from the US and Europe over the past 25 years and strategically moved closer to China as their top trading partner.

If you are confused on why Latin American countries would shift closer to China just look at the difference in foreign policy in how both countries treat South Africa, the largest and most important economy in Africa. While Trump hit South Africa with 30% tariffs, the highest rate of any country in Africa, China responded by granting the country 100% zero-tariff access to its market under a new partnership deal.

This is how business between nations advance, this is how developing countries prosper and improve the lives of its citizens, more cooperation and more trade. Once again let’s listen to the wise words of the Finnish President as he explains why the Global South is in a powerful position to determine the future of the world:

What a novel concept, if you treat others with respect and dignity, you will gain more in the long term. I couldn’t agree more with the Finnish President. Trump has threatened to annex Greenland, he has disrespected all Canadians by undermining their sovereignty and calling Canada the 51st state. Trump has acted with anything but dignity and if you want to understand why Rubio’s speech was not received well by anyone outside of the US and Europe, I want you to listen to the words of Economist Jason Hinckle:

What’s most repulsive about Rubio’s speech, and the warm embrace it received from the European ruling class, is that its only vision for “Western civilization” is a future of endless imperialist violence. They have nothing else to offer to their citizens, or to the world.

No vision for addressing social and ecological crises, no vision for improving people’s lives, no vision for human progress... no other vision for “greatness” besides violence and plunder.

It is, in fact, the antithesis of civilization. It is barbarism.

Everyone we are entering one of the most unstable periods of time in geopolitics and while Trump can try to convince his base the MAGA movement is winning and an “American First” policy is the best for the future of the world, the simple truth is the Global South and developing countries around the world own the future and if the United States will not pursue a policy of learning to work with other countries and building a better future for all of mankind, it will soon be on the outside looking in.