Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pulled off a minor diplomatic miracle. He managed to win over a room full of senior European leaders on their own territory while slaying many of the continent’s most sacred cows.

On Saturday, he received a standing ovation while giving a speech at the Munich Security Conference, the annual confab of senior European defense officials. It was a striking feat, given that the speech sounded like an intervention where Rubio was the frustrated patriarch who had just learned his family fortune was being frittered away by his dilettante children.