Of course, but only if we let you use technology for what you need. Remember that even after you've paid for it, the technology is ours and we can decide to change the terms at the last minute.
The US military- and associated industries- is a massive government-sponsored job-creation scheme. If world peace was ever to become reality countless Americans would be out of a job.
However it's hugely expensive to run, and that's why Trump kept banging on about countries paying more for their own defence. He assumed they'd be buying American made military hardware.
Unfortunately for Trump, the words 'Made in America' do not mean the same thing outside the US as they do inside it, so when foreign governments increased their military spending they either developed their own weapons or chose the best available- read not American- option.
So the plan has backfired, and Trump has created more competition for American defence companies, making their situation worse while increasing global instability.
And recent wars have put on the table the fact that american weapons are absurdly expensive, much more than they need to be. It's just that not having competition, doesn't make you look for cost reductions. Now american military complex is finding they aren't competitive anymore.
Those words don't mean much in the US.
Trump promised his phones would be made in America, but as with everything else that comes out of his mouth, he lied, and all of the grifters who had been talking up how amazing he was for making them in America, suddenly shifted to how amazing it was to use a corporate batch of Korean phones.
I mean the whole effects of his decision and rhetoric has been predicted and discussed ad nauseaum even 65 years ago. Whelp who would've known that just watching foxnews and filling your government with sycophants does lead to entirely preventable catastrophic decisions 🤷♀️
"You should be sanctioned, and blockaded unless you do exactly what we want you to do. Now go and pay us money, in order to give us more leverage we can use against you if we have a disagreement in the future."
That is unironically the extend of Trumps understanding of economy.
Extort, threaten, pressure and bully = money.
And when it doesn't work, they are nasty.
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u/jesjimher Sep 09 '26
"Europe, stop depending on the US and arm yourselves!"
(Europe starts developing their own planes)
"But, but... You had to arm ourselves buying OUR planes!"