Donald Trump calls for Taiwan to ‘pay’ for its own defence
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https://www.ft.com/content/84f8336e-9b8a-4662-a665-47aa3edb6bc9
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/18088686
https://www.ft.com/content/84f8336e-9b8a-4662-a665-47aa3edb6bc9
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/18088686
Donald wants everyone to pay for their own defence yet will also charge the taxpayer extra for this own protection (while not paying taxes himself).
That's a very interesting thing to point out. I'd like to hear his followers respond to it.
My take is the bullet actually passed through his head, but there’s nothing there so he was fine
Alternate headline: Crusty old man grossly underestimates the sheer importance of advanced semiconductors
Don't forget the Saudis! They'd love to entice Trump with a tacky golf resort in the middle of the desert in exchange for some more environmental deregulation and looking the other way on human rights violations
I feel like that’s the case for all the far-right populists around the world. Viktor Orban in Hungary, Erdogan in Turkey, the AfD party in Germany, etc. AfD members of the European parliament literally got caught taking money from the Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies, and in exchange doing some stuff in the parliament.
Erdoğan doesn't fit the list in my opinion.
He's obviously a right wing stooge that uses religious extremism to his advantage, and I hope his reign ends soon, but he's only been blocking stuff temporarily to advance his position (to get EU membership for example, or to advance at the borders), but he has been an important ally to Ukraine and NATO during the war.
I haven't seen him repeat Russian propaganda at all.
Correct me if my feeling is wrong though. I didn't look deeper into it.
Does he think Taiwan sends us a bill or something?
...
That's exactly what he thinks, isn't it?
This really shows how clueless this "businessman" is about business. Imagine China invades in Taiwan. About any business in the electronic sector will go down hard. Really hard. All over the world.
I posted a similar comment on some of the news around the US Republican's withholding aid to Ukraine for 6 months but this is insane.
Sure in the case of Taiwan specifically, the semiconductors is an obvious and immediate issue. But it's also worth noting that the US has spent countless trillions of dollars and worked through consecutive administrations for decades to establish itself as a reliable, irreplaceable and necessary defence partner.
This isn't just about Taiwan or Ukraine, but the geopolitical status of the US as a whole. It seems insane to me to jeopardize that. I'm no political scientist or anything so if this is actually in some way good for the US I'd be very interested to hear that perspective.
Think about it. Who loses if the US becomes anything other than a reliable, irreplaceable and necessary defense partner? Who gains?
Putin is waging war against the rest of the world on multiple fronts and our definitions and rules of engagement when it comes to hybrid warfare aren't up to date.
I think there's definitely merit to that. There are multiple avenues to achieving that end though and the US suddenly leaving its allies unprotected is probably the worst possible one imo. I am biased though living in Taiwan and having my home country also dependent on our alliance with the US for defence.
Taiwan isn't an ally it's a vassal. And you shouldn't be so excited to be a meat shield for their aggression on the opposite side of the world. Even if you have sympathies for your fascist, genocidal government.
Oh yes, of course it's American aggression that's the problem here, not Chinese aggression.
Check out the continent of Africa for a current view of the counterpoint to your argument.
Have you seen nmap before?
"The US isn't being aggressive by building military bases on the border of this other country on the other side of the world because... um... HEY LOOK! IT'S AFRICA!"
Fucking moron
Uhhh, ok now you've lost me. I'd kinda just like to not have myelf or my family bombed or shot at and be able to have self determination. Being under the umbrella of US protection is the best way to have both of those things right now.
Taiwan will just say American corporations should pay more for those precious chips to fund it's defense
my understanding is that Taiwan buys weapons from the us, so he is demanding something that is already a common practice
An indebted loser crying about on time payments and once again toeing the line for yet another authoritarian state. Seems like you didn't learn anything last Saturday, Donnie boy.
I guess we don’t know the motivation for the last shooter’s actions. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to get himself whacked sooner or later.
Does Donny know where the processor of the phone that he posts all his verbal vomit comes from?
What are we, the protection racket? Defend the nerd from the bully and then demand the lunch money for ourselves? FFS, can nobody be good for the sake of what's right and won't without expectation of a return?
America never did it because it was right. That's a happy side effect. It did it as its in its own interest. Just like with israel, which now leads to Palestinian genocide. They aren't moral decisions being made.
So Trump is making it seem like it will save the USA money but it won't. It will cost much more in the long run. I wodner how many Chinese votes will be won and lost, or other Asian votes, knowing it risks destabilizing the region.
Let Taiwan and their super fucking important chip factories fall into adversary hands and see how that works out.
Yeah. They make a huge percentage of the world's high-end chips. A military takeover would leave us shoveling piles of money at China or, more likely, the fabs would be destroyed and suddenly every computer or product that uses a computer to create it (read: all of them) shoots up in price for the next decade.
And that is just the immediate effects. The downstream effects of the US no longer providing security would likely lead to swift nuclear proliferation as that is the only way such a small country can hope to protect itself if no larger country is willing to stick their neck out for them.
It will work out just fine, having 1 single country provide the world with everything. What could possibly go wrong?
There are companies and governments trying to put this right at the moment, but chip manufacturing capacity is very slow to set up. It requires very expensive, specialized and uncommon equipment and highly qualified specialist staff who are not easy to find or quick to train.
Next you’ll be wondering where all the American soft power went, except I bet you're too dumb to know what soft power is
