As I always said, the US never cared about the defense expenditure of European countries except as a way to bolster US exports.
It was always about extortion and never about defense.
this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Yep, they were fine with 'footing the bill for European defense' as long as enough members bought F35s and whatever other pointless toys the US produced. Only France basically stuck with producing everything domestically.
Trump never really understood what that unspoken part of the bargain really was about. If Europe is going to actually spend 2% of GDP, they're going to keep that money domestically as much as possible instead of sending all that spending overseas in dollars.
You'd think a businessman as bigly smart (people tell him all the time, many people) as he is would understand this.
I still don't know if he's just stupid or if he's just doing what Putin wants by undermining NATO. I guess both could be true at the same time.
He's a dealer, not a businessman. Deal β business economics β national economics β global economics.
If you apply the "art of the deal" to the global economy, you'll wreck it. Well, if you apply his "art of the deal", you'll wreck basically anything except you're own wallet.
A del would imply heβs good at negotiation. He isnβt. Heβs good at leveraging people, but mostly thatβs been illegal. If he was good at deals, he wouldnβt have messed up international relations, which is deal making, but more complex. Heβs a rich kid that fell upwards and inspired a cult following through sheer luck.
Trump never really understood that most US "aid" is literally the US gov recycling old ordinance and equipment to continue siphoning tax dollars into the military industrial complex and it's oligarchs β expenses DOGE have not touched and do not consider "waste"... for some, certainly not fascist imperialism, reason...
Trump never really understood
You could have stopped there.
"No, we don't like that. We insist that you do not."
"Art of ze deal, non?"
There is nobody more entitled on this planet than the Orange man and his followers.
"Here's a tariff! Fuck you!"
We don't trust you anymore. We won't buy from you
"Noooo, but you must!"
Fuck 'em.
Have they thanked us for buying their weapons yetβ¦
And I donβt think they were wearing the right suits β¦
I dunno I heard some American with a spray tan say that they didn't need Europe or Canada...
Letβs ditch the American weapons.
MAGA: AMERICA FIRST!
Rest of world: OK, I guess we need to put ourselves first, too.
MAGA: NOT LIKE THAT!
According to two of the sources, Rubio said any exclusion of U.S. companies from European tenders would be seen negatively by Washington,
Ah ah ah ! "Would be seen negatively"... Ah ah ah !
We want Greenland. We think you are all worthless freeloaders. We wish to kill your businesses with tariffs because you dared to sell us things (and we don't care how bad that will be for our people. My voters are too stupid and brainwashed to care and the opposition doesn't matter)... Also buy our weapons!
They say this after taunting Germany last month on a visit in Munich where they basically said youβd have to have military power to be sovereign.
This sounds like it came from the same guy who wanted to sue companies for not advertising on twitter
Maybe they should object to the reasons that made us buying European in the first place.
Sounds like the Defense Industry doesn't want anybody upsetting the apple cart.
I wonder if these powerful businesses could come up with a solution? π€
Plsplspls buy from mee. Give that sweet sweet money. I neeed it soooo bad ~USA
Well ... We want you to put the orange turd in jail and quit being dicks to everybody. You can't always get what you want, can you?
EU not purchasing weapons from America; that's shocking! Anyway.
Yea, we know that american interests wants that. European (allies?) are, understandably, not comfortable with that though.
π
I wonder if he understands the conflict between "open market" and "tariffs," or if this is just a case of him not understanding that other countries get to make their own policy, or what.
I don't want the patient of the US to be operating under Maxim 13.
This is not about tariffs. If you buy US weapons, the US has some control over their use. You generally need ammunition, spare parts, service the weapons and for some more modern ones access to US servers. The contracts also usually include clauses of needing US permission to resell those weapons.
There were some rumors that the US forbid US made weapons to be given to Ukraine for some time. The EU does not want something similar to happen, if Russia attacks them.
This may not be only about tariffs, but they play into it, if only by making other countries unhappy with us.
What till Americans figure out where high quality small arms come from. Glock anyone? Beretta, Heckler & Koch, Benelli, Browning Arms Company (yes, Browning), SIG Sauer, Springfield Armory, Taurus (some), Chiappa, and more. And don't forget our Filipino friends at Rock Island Armory!
Sadly, this part of the tariff shitshow may actually work since we already have plenty of quality domestic producers. But fuck me, the SIG Sauer is the standard US military sidearm and Glock is standard everywhere else. Have fun cop budgets!
I ... can't imagine the US government cares about that (excuse the pun) caliber of gun too much. Police guns will largely be paid for from municipal and state budgets rather than the federal budget, and there's something larger at stake:
- Large US producers want to make profits, and I can't imagine that small, extremely commoditized weapons are the best option for that.
- The US government would probably like gain more control over the EU. If the US were to attack Greenland, they'd probably be happier if EU nations were immobilized because [shenanigans].
I may be wrong.
Sounds like the US is looking for reason to either sell their weapons ..... or use them
Any way you slice it ..... war means profit
I hope USA doesn't sell to Russia...
I'm shocked.
Lol, but this is a manufactured problem. Eat shit military industrial complex, you evil warmongers
Maffia. All of them.
Wah