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Comment by TrackerFF | Hacker News Reader

Who would have thought that the POTUS would be the person to kick foreign arms industries into sixth gear?

Well he’s been very vocal about NATO countries increasing their defense contributions. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the US needs to sell all the weapons.

And all everybody speaks of is expenditure, not capabilities. That alone should tell you what the goal is.

Except it might backfire if Europe understandably decides it must buy European.

Yes, seems like things are already starting to take off:

- Shares of Starlink’s European rival Eutelsat have tripled. CEO says it can do the job in Ukraine. [1]

- Boost for German economy: Armaments sector picks up former car industry employees [2]

[1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/shares-of-starlinks-europe... [2] (German only) https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Ruestungsbranche-sammelt-ehem...

> Boost for German economy: Armaments sector picks up former car industry employees

Why do I hear strains of "Spring time for Germany" playing in my head?

Yesssss, I'd rather have those people working in renewable energy or some other future tech, but that industry was broken down as we all remember... So I guess we have to live with armaments for the moment. :-/

"Trump Tells Europe to Buy American Arms to Keep NATO Strong". [1]

"U.S. President Donald Trump complained Thursday that his country's decades-old security treaty with Japan is nonreciprocal, as he steps up pressure on allies to increase defense spending and buy more American products." [2]

It's about buying more American weapons.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-13/trump-tel...

[2] https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/03/fd3521d51353-upda...

> It's about buying more American weapons.

He's an idiot if he really thinks that his actions will result in this.

European defense stocks are going parabolic right now.

He is indeed an idiot. Often more of an idiot than anyone else around.

Yeah this turning of F16 support is really going to sell them.

We're not increasing defense spending to appease Trump though. We're increasing defense spending because we realize a need for strategic independence from the US. Because for the comming 4 years, it's obvious that the US won't be a reliable partner, and might even be an adversary. It makes no sense for us to buy American if we need strategic independence from the US.

Just like everything else he’s done, I’m not remotely surprised. I wonder if people realize where this all ends, and are taking appropriate precautions.

Sometimes I wonder if he's a secret genius that leverages his own stupidity.

E.g. he might be solely responsible for getting the Liberals reelected in Canada, something that a year ago you would have thought was absolutely impossible. But Trump is so deeply hated in Canada now that every time he mocks Trudeau it makes the Liberals more popular. Liberal support, which before Trump was elected was so low as to make a Conservative election win seem inevitable, has skyrocketed since Trump took office. It's now pretty much a dead heat, and that's before the Liberals have elected their new leader.

So I don't know, maybe he just really, really wanted the Liberals to get reelected and he pulled off the only way to make it happen. Maybe he felt sorry that Canadians seemed so internally divided, so he threatened to annex Canada to unite us.

Or maybe he's a moron that can't even understand cause and effect.

https://338canada.com/polls.htm

I heard that a lot about pretty much every country politics that "there's something more going on, some conspiracy". But again and again I see that there's nothing hidden, it's all pretty simple and dumb. We just want to overcomplicate things to feel smarter.

Trump reminds me of someone trying to finish the last side of a rubiks cube by undoing every other side in that pursuit by not paying attention to them.

I think he'll continue to be the main cause of constraints to realizing his visions maximally.

For this reason, once we can look back on this time in retrospect, there's a way this plays out where he may just be a horse that ran away. [0]

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_old_man_lost_his_horse

He has been pretty vocal about exactly that. He said multiple times that European countries must increase defense budgets significantly.

Yes, but he said that in the context of buying American products. He wanted the American economy to benefit from arms sales, not a more independent Europe.

Source please, that seems totally made up.

He has been clear about NATO %'s, very little room for your confusion.

Almost every time he talks about it you’ll see some detail like this link shared by someone else:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-13/trump-tel...

EU is being threatened with tariffs because we’re not buying „enough” things from the US, including among others arms. The „suggestion” has always been to spend that money in the USA.

Historically, an independent Europe has meant continental war after continental war, and Europe is again pushing for a continental war.

This isn’t “Europe” pushing for a war, that’s solely Russia. That’s also why this policy reversal is so shocking: until recently, pretty much everyone accepted the post-WWII consensus that the United States helping to stabilize Europe was better for everyone. Trump throwing in with Russia is not only a betrayal of our allies but also dramatically increasing the risk of war since it tells Russia and anyone else so inclined that wars of aggression are viable as long as you make it financially rewarding for him.

No, it’s Europe. Ukraine decided not to join the EU and the West supported a coup via the Maidan Revolution. The extent of that support? I don’t know, but at the very least we were verbally encouraging the violent overthrow of their government.

What are you talking about? Isn't it Russia that's pushing for a continental war, not Europe?

Yeah, but EU countries donated weapons like the F-16, which were bought from the US in the first place. So now we have to use another source for those weapon systems and the revenue/jobs won't end up in the US.

Is this really what the US wants?

That's US's problem. Which is very minor compared to Ukraine's or Europe's problems with this war.

Yes. To buy more American weapons.

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