One question directly invokes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s demand that allies stay “strong, clear, and quiet” in alignment with U.S. interests.

  • ThePrimitive@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I hope all our former allies realize that there’s NOTHING they can do to restore that protection during the reign of Clown King. No amount of licking his orange balls will work. They must turn away from us and move on as quickly as possible.

    Why? Because he spoke in front of the UN general assembly on September 25 2018 and they laughed at him. If you think that’s just too stupid an explanation, if you think he can’t possibly be that insecure and petty, finish your nap before you reply.

    A normal person would feel that humiliation and go through a cycle of emotion, maybe including an initial anger, but would ultimately self-reflect, conclude those world leaders can’t all be wrong, and strive to improve. He’s not capable.

    But why does he keep making up with the dictators of the world after very public spats? Because they’ve never publicly laughed at him.

    His insecurity is paired with a deep feeling of inferiority to all the worlds’ leaders. When Kim, Putin, Xi, etc. fight with him, they lower themselves to his level, so even though they’re fighting, he feels like they think of him as a peer. When someone laughs at him, he knows that they don’t respect him. He knows they can see through his preposterous facade. He can’t pretend they don’t, like he can with the dictators.

    No imminent geopolitical reality exists that will snap him out of it. No amount of his rivals debasing themselves will unring that bell. No protection “deal” will ever be honored because the sting of humiliation can’t be salved with signatures.

    • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      Unfortunately for the US, Trump was elected. Twice. That means US “allies” need to assume a similar character can be elected again in 4, 8, 12… years.

      Since establishing a strong independent defence and matching industry takes years, even decades, US allies would be absolutely fool to attempt any “back to normal” process after Trump.

      The US arms exportations are to collapse until no one really depends on i. It’s only a matter of time before alternatives are developed for every critical piece of equipment.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        US allies would be absolutely fool to attempt any “back to normal” process after Trump.

        They wouldn’t be US allies to begin with if they weren’t fools

        We’ve been doing Trumpism since Nixon. Even under Trump, quite a few US allies are openly in favor of this kind of leadership

        • matlag@sh.itjust.works
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          8 hours ago

          Oh the US have played their fare share of dirty tricks alright to their allies, but at least, until now, that was in exchange of a military insurance. And now, that’s gone forever. One cannot ask an enemy to wait 4 years so that maybe the next POTUS would honor defense agreements.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        11 hours ago

        the world ought to continue laughing at trump whenever he makes a speech.

        I usually hang my head and say “what is this fucking idiot yammering about this time”

    • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I hope Americans realize Trump and the GOP have changed America’s relationship with the world, forever. There is no going back.

      • Bieren@lemmy.today
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        17 hours ago

        I don’t think people believe it. But he has undone basically everything achieved on global relationship level over the last 100 years. If anything, we are closer to our enemies than our allies.

        • minorkeys@sh.itjust.works
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          4 hours ago

          The Trump leadership is definitely closer to enemies than allies, there is no doubt. I can only hope patriots in the middle bureaucracy of the US gov are doing what they can to roadblock his efforts.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Germany and Italy are allowed to be important. You say “no going back” but history suggests a single generation of “normalcy” is enough.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          11 hours ago

          Italy and Germany had suffered a massive millitary defeat, and had strict conditions imposed on them. And they put in the effort to rebuild the world’s trust in them.

          Unless the USA is humbled to that level, and does the hard work of fixing the damage Trump and his cronies did, and fixing their country’s systems so a megalomaniac fascisst doesn’t seize full control again, the world has no choice other than to not trust them.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          11 hours ago

          Yes, a generation after the people of a country realize they fucked up.

          Americans don’t seem to realize that they fucked up yet.

      • Auli@lemmy.ca
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        18 hours ago

        I hope countries start kicking Americans out of the bases. Ahh one can dream.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          11 hours ago

          The US is so stupid right now, they’ll probably just leave. They’re already having major issues supplying their ships in the Indian ocean, this kind of move will make that worse. But they’ll still probably do it anyway.