KEY POINTS

  • Defense stocks dropped sharply Thursday afternoon after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could massively cut defense spending.
  • Trump has sent mixed messages on military spending throughout his 2024 campaign and in the early days of his presidency.
  • withabeard@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Who’s to bet a load of shares get bought up, then suddenly this announcement is rescinded?

    • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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      2 months ago

      Playing the market based on the insanity dripping out of this guy daily, not a bad plan. If only there was some actual rhyme and reason to what he does.

      • MrEff@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I was already going hard on AI stock, then day of inauguration when he sent the clear message of where tech companies stand in running this country I dumped ALL investment money into AI stock. If I have to live in this hellscape I better at least get to retire in it.

        • abrake@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          My brother, have you heard about the benefits of diversification? If you want to retire at all, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

          • JPAKx4
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            2 months ago

            If I invested in eggs I wouldn’t be in this mess!

    • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I bought lockheed martin call options after the way the steel markets rebounded

      Edit: just checked volume on LMT. 2.4M today vs an average of 1.35M. Yeeeeeeah. Lot more buyers than usual today

      • oyo@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Yay for incredibly immoral investments. It’s disgusting how stock trading has been gamified and divorced from what it actually is, owning and supporting a company.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      Since the entire thing is contingent on China and Russia agreeing to half their defence budget too, the only thing to bet on is when it will be rescinded.

  • Snot Flickerman
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    2 months ago

    He wants to annex Canada with half the war machine funding?

    He is literally a fucking moron.

  • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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    2 months ago

    I’m guessing this is all just a ploy to make Lockheed, Northrup, and Raytheon kiss the ring.

    Next week, all the classified work will be contracted to them for a steal of only thrice the price, but only once they’ve publicly kissed his ass enough.

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Broken clocks. If its any consolation he could be, variously-

      1. Floating random shit. Common Trump talk.
      2. Actually wanting to weaken the U.S. militarily, to the benefit of his leash holders.
      3. Fishing for bribes.
    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Thats the magic of trump though, when he’s vague about things he can sometimes spin them as something agreeable. My guess is he’ll keep the regime change bullshit and nix stuff like burn pit procedures, ukraine support, and veterans benefits

  • MetalMachine@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    Would be a good thing if it would actually happen but we all know it won’t. Happy to be proven wrong however

    • Fredthefishlord
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      2 months ago

      Would it be a good thing? A lot of our power comes from military spending

      • pregnantwithrage@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        We spend more on our military than the next 9 countries combined not including our dark operations that we can’t account for in our budget already.

        We could cut our military in half and still be the best funded military in the world.

        That problem isn’t other nations, it’s the US and the military industrial complex

        • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Have you ever read the unclassified annual threat assessment? There is an official report the intelligence comminity puts out every year detailing what other nations are doing around the world. And that’s just what theyre allowed to tell us.

          Ive read it, and if you look at what they detail out for chinas militarzation moderniation plans, theres not many reasons theyre doing what theyre doing unless to compete with the USA. Not to mention, chinas going faster than what originally was thought, and theyre becoming less reliant on other nations to do it. Thats just 1 nation. The usa has stuck its nose in too many peoples business that if they stop the arms race, there could be a lot of nations coming knocking. Weve painted ourselves into a corner (or at least have the perception of it).

          Edit: all that said, theres definitely ways to be more fiscally responsible with our military spending… just look at the f35 or the sentinel program

        • shastaxc@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          But we also sell a lot of that military equipment to allies, making everyone stronger and recouping some of that spending at the same time.

          A quick search shows about $300b in sales last year with a spending budget about $800b. Of course, that depends on whether Ukraine survives to be able to repay its debt. But even if it can’t, all the military spending goes to US owned companies or citizens (our soldiers) which circulates in the domestic economy.

      • MetalMachine@feddit.nl
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        2 months ago

        Considering how we’ve used that power in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam? Yes, its a good thing.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    If he actually halves Pentagon Spending, that would be… the first good deed he’s ever done.

    • answersplease77@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He never will. He sent a message for weapon manufacturer CEOs to chip in, and off course they will gladlyl buy him just like how silicon techies did

      • tempest@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Exactly, this is just fishing for a bribe, just like the tariffs. Bribe Trump enough and your program or industry will get a loop hole or passed over for 6 months or whatever.

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Are you kidding … who the hell believes anything this idiot says any more. If any one does, then you are just as dumb or dumber than this orange cheeseball.

    He is the master of deception, lies and misdirection … he’ll say one thing, everyone panics and runs around scared or angry and while they panic, he goes behind everyone to pull off some cheesy lame ass scam that would have been easy to stop otherwise but he gets away with it because everyone is preoccupied.

    The stocks will jump up and down at his every whim and because he is the one directing the show, he’ll profit by betting on when the fall occurs and when the rise returns. He’ll skim off everyone’s wealth over and over again until we’re all bled dry.

  • cultsuperstar@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    It doesn’t need to be halved. They just need to figure out where a large portion of the money goes, since they can’t seem to account for it.

  • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    Muskrat being involved in this at all is an actual violation of his SGE title. Not that laws are real anymore, but, big ones would be broken.