109
Trump demands $500B in rare earths from Ukraine for continued support (www.politico.eu)
submitted 1 week ago by geese_feces@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

“I told them [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent like $500B worth of rare earth. And they've essentially agreed to do that so at least we don’t feel stupid,” Trump said.

“Otherwise, we're stupid. I said to them we have to — 'we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money,'” he added.

“The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most,” Zelenskyy said Friday in an interview with Reuters.

top 35 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] pancake@lemmygrad.ml 66 points 1 week ago

Step 1: use soft power to deteriorate diplomatic relationship of two neighboring countries.

Step 2: tell country A to join your military coalition against country B. War ensues.

Step 3: send investment in the form of weapons.

Step 4: get returns on investment as full control over the country.

[-] 30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs@hexbear.net 30 points 1 week ago

I guess it's only slightly more mask-off than imposing austerity policies as a condition for IMF loans shrug-outta-hecks

[-] GrouchyGrouse@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago

To those in the know. Most people probably have no idea what the IMF actually does.

[-] huf@hexbear.net 22 points 1 week ago

it's like a HOI4 exploit strategy, like shadow puppeting...

[-] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 58 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

the way he says it—rare earths—I know he means rare earth metals but it sounds like he’s doing gacha for planets

[-] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

zelensky-pain “sir, this Earth, it’s a Limited Preorder Seasonal Event Alter. XSSR 5* Misprint Polychrome Australium. top of the line. from the oldest vault.”

trump-anguish “What is this, a gilded turd? I wanted the one with the big mountains. the biggest mountains. nobody’s seen mountains bigger. come back when you have mountains. and trees. big trees.”

[-] RION@hexbear.net 31 points 1 week ago

He's like me when I'm doing a full house build in Balatro

[-] TheLepidopterists@hexbear.net 53 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

God this sucks for Ukraine. I've had this thought for a while but the absolute best case scenario at this point is that as much as possible gets annexed and Russia just straight up refuses to acknowledge the debts the old government racked up right?

American corporations just fully own them at this point it seems like.

[-] SacredExcrement@hexbear.net 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Probably

The other alternative is somehow retaining independence, but with everything owned by western venture capital/investment firms

[-] volcel_olive_oil@hexbear.net 46 points 1 week ago

zelensky-pain most indebted and fucked over nation ever speedrun any%

[-] blunder@hexbear.net 41 points 1 week ago

If you're just going to give your country away, why fight against Russia? Because the USA was a higher bidder?

[-] BodyBySisyphus@hexbear.net 31 points 1 week ago

Zelensky is probably most worried about what happens to Zelensky if the Russians win right now. I doubt patriotism or love for his fellow Ukrainians is super high on his list of motivations.

[-] space_comrade@hexbear.net 18 points 1 week ago

Dude is completely cooked, best case for him is he goes to exile in the US. Russians are going to merc him as soon as they get the chance and the goodwill from the Ukrainian people will fade soon enough.

[-] KoboldKomrade@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

Just do what every failed dictator did around WWII, form a "government in exile" in London.

[-] nothx@hexbear.net 41 points 1 week ago

“Strip mine your country for us, otherwise we let the ruskies do it!”

[-] DinosaurThussy@hexbear.net 37 points 1 week ago

That trade war with China is forcing them to call in debts in it’s barely begun

[-] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 30 points 1 week ago

I don't really see how this is different in any way to the savage privatization program that has already been at full force since shortly after the beginning of the SMO. privatization.gov.ua and all that.

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 20 points 1 week ago

It's not, it's just easier for libs to notice

[-] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Can't decide if this is better or worse

Edit: I have decided this is worse

[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 46 points 1 week ago

This was going to be the result whether or not Trump screamed it from the rooftops for his own political vanity.

I believe naked imperialism will be easier to fight than the competent imperialism that previously hid itself.

[-] LanyrdSkynrd@hexbear.net 30 points 1 week ago

I've been thinking about this lately.

Trump being so open about imperialism will make it easier to convince people that the US war machine is about profits, but it also makes it easier to convince them that imperialism is necessary to maintain their economic privilege. It's easier for people to be against something bad when they don't think they're getting any benefit from it.

I don't think those minerals will benefit anyone but the ruling class, but your average American could be easily convinced they will.

[-] Cimbazarov@hexbear.net 25 points 1 week ago

Yea, although there are still people who think this is just unique to Trump and the democrats/Biden were the good guys using diplomacy rather than force and blackmail

[-] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

I've thought about this explicitness being easier to identify too.

However, you make a good point that libs will just act like it's a specifically Trumpian evil. I also remember that no one pays attention to anything and if they do hear about something then they just generally dismiss it in some form or another, so I don't know if previously unaware people will be any differently disposed at all.

[-] SadArtemis@hexbear.net 22 points 1 week ago

This was already the reality on paper, the only difference is Trump is saying it out loud.

Blackrock and other US corporate giants basically own Ukraine at this point. Zelensky himself has talked about how Ukraine "takes credit" and the Banderite state literally runs its own official site to auction off state assets to western vultures.

That said, this is as good as it gets (IMO). The leader of the ""free world"" is going mask-off as a naked imperialist, but the mineral wealth lies safely in the hands of Russia and the global majority (as it is concentrated in eastern former Ukraine) and therefore will not enrich the west.

[-] ComradeSpahija@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago

dialectics?

[-] Crucible@hexbear.net 22 points 1 week ago

It would be funny if this is what made Zelenskyy finally get couped- openly talking about selling off the country piecemeal, talking about what they have to give away when previously this was all for democracy and whatever

[-] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago

Reality TV Actor/Steak Salesman vs A Comedy Actor in a grift off. Truly the Epic Rap Battles of History timeline

[-] Sulv@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago

Intercontinental shakedown

[-] BobDole@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

Have fun refining them without China in the loop lmao

[-] Kieselguhr@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

So how are the EU libs spinning this shining example of Ukraine's sovereignty?

[-] Evilsandwichman@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

Orange capitalism bad, previous blue capitalism good

[-] CrawlMarks@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So then it is in everyone favor is the good 'ol azov boys just surrender then isn't it? Only that isn't gonna happen.

[-] ihaveibs@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

Oh now we care about this shit? FOH

this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
109 points (100.0% liked)

news

23804 readers
194 users here now

Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.

Rules:

-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --

-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --

-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --

-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --

-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--

-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--

-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --

-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Alaskaball@hexbear.net
ZoomeristLeninist@hexbear.net
carpoftruth@hexbear.net
GinAndJuche@hexbear.net
Breath_Of_The_Snake@hexbear.net
context@hexbear.net
Infamousblt@hexbear.net
FALGSConaut@hexbear.net