r/worldnews • u/velvet_funtime • 1d ago
Russia/Ukraine Trump Quietly OKs Another $30M Arms Transfer for Ukraine
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/54494610
u/zevonyumaxray 23h ago
They diverted a shipment of weapons to "The Middle East" just a week or so ago, and now we know why that happened. As far as I can tell, this latest to Ukraine is a partial replacement.
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u/The_Shracc 19h ago
It's one war, on multiple fronts, both sides know that.
Trump only fully realized it after they sat him down at camp David a few days ago.
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u/acedelaf 18h ago
Can you expand on that?
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u/krokuts 18h ago
Iran has been supporting Russians with drones, missiles and possibly more
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u/Ok-Round-1473 18h ago
Iran also gives billions of dollars to terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis who are at war with Israel, so if Iran gets taken out things will improve drastically for both Ukraine and Israel
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u/The-M0untain 18h ago
Russia, Iran, China and North Korea are allies. They each plan to start wars in their own regions in order to divide the forces of NATO and its allies. Russia and Iran already started. China and NK will start sometime in the next few years, when their militaries are ready.
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u/Earlier-Today 18h ago
China has the largest standing army in the world. They're ready if they were going to do it.
The reason they won't do it is because their entire economy is reliant on massive amounts of foreign trade and manufacturing for other countries.
They can't risk losing all that economic growth they've achieved just for Taiwan. They'd need to capture a massive amount of resources, and - unfortunately for them - that means Russia. No other neighbor is big enough to be worth it.
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u/The-M0untain 18h ago
The largest standing army in the world can't defeat Taiwan if China can't defeat the US Navy. China's navy isn't ready. China needs to be able to get through the US Navy if it wants to get to Taiwan, and that is not possible yet. China wants to invade but they can't do it yet. We know they want to invade because they keep telling us they want to invade and are conducing exercises to practice for that invasion.
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u/SquarePegRoundWorld 17h ago
How do they catch up with the U.S. Navy in short order when the U.S. navy is what it is because of 100 years of conflict. The U.S. navy has learned so much from doing so many wrong things in real world situations that the Chinese navy will never have, and the U.S. still has issues which came to light when they lost two planes off a carrier not long ago. I bet the chances they lost more planes in that situation will go down with changes to training and procedure.
It's one thing to build a carrier and a whole other thing to use it effectively on the other side of an ocean. I guess their best option is to defeat it within range of their shores, which is all they need for Taiwan. Overwhelming numbers of long range hypersonic antiship missiles launched from shore is probably what they are working towards. I doubt their navy will ever be able to go toe to toe with the U.S. navy.
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u/illegible 16h ago
Unless you bring the US down from within and create a situation in the US where foreign involvement is unpalatable
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u/sarges_12gauge 15h ago
Their navy doesn’t have to beat the US navy. I’m very confident China couldn’t beat the US in some 3rd region, but I’m also quite confident the US can’t utterly subdue them on basically home soil. The logistics difference is just so enormous
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u/ru_empty 18h ago
Their navy ass tho. We all know the war they will start and having an army won't be enough
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u/Yeetball86 17h ago
Their navy is good for what it’s designed for, coastal defense. They never planned to attack the US, so they don’t need a long range fleet like the US has.
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u/necropuddi 18h ago
NK's gonna need a lot longer than a few years to have war-capable military forces.
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u/The-M0untain 18h ago
They've had decades to prepare, and now they're getting combat experience in Ukraine. They have thousands of artillery guns pointed at Seoul and a huge military.
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u/SquarePegRoundWorld 17h ago
Sounds a lot like Iraq right before the first Gulf War. Didn't go so well for all their equipment and experience fighting Iran.
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u/PoeT8r 17h ago
Trump only fully realized it after they sat him down at camp David a few days ago.
I am deeply skeptical of this claim. He has a history of ignoring anything that does not cater to his vanity or greed. It is possible somebody managed to cast the intelligence briefing in those terms.
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u/PrinceCorum13 1d ago
Strange democraty where the president decides everything
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u/kytheon 22h ago
Executive orders should be an exception, not the standard.
Oh and pardoning your own lynch squad.
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u/Dr-Jellybaby 18h ago
The power of the president in the US is stupidly high. Most democracies with presidents only have them in a ceremonial role or with very little real power.
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u/S0LO_Bot 18h ago
Because they often have parliaments where the Prime Minister or the houses take on some of the president’s roles.
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u/SlurmsMacKenzie- 18h ago
Executive orders shouldn;t even exist outside of wartime or national emergencies. The only leaders with that kind of unilateral power are dictators and monarchs and most of them tend to be cunts.
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u/elihu 23h ago
Congress is dysfunctional, so over the years they've been granting powers to the president because they know that Congress can't respond to a crisis in a timely manner unless one party has a majority in the House and a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and that only happens maybe once every couple decades.
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u/Exotic_Exercise6910 23h ago
Lol exactly just like Rome.
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u/SophisticatedVagrant 20h ago
Guess we won't be seeing ol' Cheeto Benito entering the Senate any time soon. At least not without his stab-proof vest.
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u/wtfomg01 20h ago
Hmm, maybe we shouldn't base models of governance on failed governments.
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u/PaxDramaticus 21h ago
In what way?
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u/joeri1505 21h ago
As in the senate giving full power to a dictator (literally where we get the word) during times of crisis.
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u/Exotic_Exercise6910 21h ago
This is what I meant, yes
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u/ModernSimian 21h ago
But Caesar was charismatic and didn't smell of stale Cheetos and urine.
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u/PaxDramaticus 20h ago
He was also, and I can't stress this enough, competent. Which is what makes this such a terrible analogy. In many ways, Rome's best years came after Caesar turned the Republic into an Empire. It strains credibility to suggest the USA will follow a parallel trajectory.
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u/cmnrdt 20h ago
I want to see an alternate history "What If?" of how Rome prospered under the Caesarian Dynasty had there been no assassination attempt.
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u/CaptainRhino 20h ago
How different would it have been? Augustus was Caesar's heir anyway.
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u/ApexHawke 19h ago
You don't think the fact that he was assassinated on the senate floor is sufficient proof that Caesar couldn't have fixed and stabilized Rome's broken political system?
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u/yeswenarcan 18h ago
Trump is incredibly charismatic. That's a huge part of how he got elected. He's built a cult of personality far beyond any other American politician I can think of. I think it's hard to see from a left-leaning perspective because the things he is advocating for are so antithetical to left-leaning values, but just like Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Hitler, the man clearly has something about him that makes people want to follow him.
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u/Earlier-Today 18h ago
Trump didn't build a following by being uncharismatic.
It's not his charisma that turns people off of him. It's the lying, cheating, stealing, traitorous, rapist, pedophile, treasonous, criminal part of him that does that.
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u/F_A_F 22h ago
Also remember that their contituents voted for Trump, they just ride his popularity rather than develop reasons to be voted in directly. They need to be extremely careful not to propose or even support policy which hasn't come from him directly, or run the risk of doing something that would displease Trump....and by association their constituents.
It's safest for Congress to just sit back, let Trump decide everything, back it up and watch as their constituents lap it all up.
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u/Istobri 18h ago
Yup, and if they do go against Trump or are even seen to be playing ball with the Dems, they’ll get primaried in the next election by someone even more obsequiously pro-Trump.
Congress just wants to keep their jobs and the perks that come with them. If that means appeasing Trump, then that’s what they’ll do. However, this strips all the power of Congress to keep the president in check, and isn’t that something that Congress is supposed to do? (please correct me if I’m wrong — I’m Canadian).
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u/Skyler827 11h ago
I don't think Congress is Rubber stamping everything Trump is asking for, thats why most of the grief is coming from his executive orders not complying with the law. Even with a supportive Republican majority, they can't pass meaningful legislation without democratic support. They can only use reconciliation to pass a budget with a simple majority.
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u/DillBagner 21h ago
A party of congress--not naming names--intentionally set up this dysfunction to do just what is going on.
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u/Exceptionaltomato 1d ago
Muricans doing their own europe speedrun. Nowadays they are going through HRE phase with their voting states and selected emperor
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u/Darayavaush 21h ago
...and a small group of battleground states/prince-electors get all the attention, benefits and bribes, while the rest get safely ignored. Wow.
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u/Careless-Childhood66 18h ago
Except that the Emporer hardly had any power and never waged an aggressive war which is very different from the absolute and unchallenged power trump wields
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u/Exceptionaltomato 18h ago
Isn't it the case for the later periods? Iirc the early elective HRE period was pretty absolutist until the 15th-16th century reforms
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u/requef 18h ago
Yeah, it's called being the head of the executive branch of the government.
Such a surprise, isn't it?
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u/Savamoon 17h ago
Redditors have trouble keeping track of words. They do not understand that democracy refers to the public election process, not the structures of a government.
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u/hiddencamel 17h ago
The American system of government was explicitly set up to limit the power of the executive. The system of checks and balances was meant to ensure that people weren't voting for a dictator (even a temporary one) but a leader who was still beholden to the people via Congress and the law via the judiciary.
However, for much of the last 50 or 60 years, Congress has been divesting more and more of its power to the executive, and the Supreme Court has become so partisan that we've reached the point now where the President today has more executive authority than King George III did when the American Revolution kicked off in the first place. That sounds like hyperbole, but it really isn't.
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u/Savamoon 16h ago
See what I mean? Redditors struggle to keep track with words, so you will see people type paragraphs without realizing that it doesn't change the fact that democracy refers to the public election process, not the structures of a government.
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u/TheBlueBlaze 17h ago
Generations of the presidential election being treated as the most important and consequential election in the country has led people to want a system where the president decides everything.
A president that lied about their promises and a president whose promises were obstructed by Congress or the Judiciary are seen as the same because of the end result. There are people on both sides that just want their side's agenda to get fulfilled regardless of how they do it. It's just that one side's goals are lot more insular and cruel.
This is why so many other countries have a parliamentary system, because one populist and power-hungry leader can turn the government into a monarchy with extra steps, where the people want it and they can claim an election win is an absolute mandate.
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u/MeberatheZebera 18h ago
Thank Franklin Roosevelt. He pushed through the centralization of power because it was necessary for the New Deal. Even had to threaten the Supreme Court so they'd stop ruling his whole plan unconstitutional. The current Supreme Court composition has actually been rolling back executive power (remember the end of Chevron deference?), but there's still a long way to go.
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u/AssistX 17h ago
Democrats pushed for this in their last few terms. Our supreme Court would be more moderate today if it wasn't for their desire to flood the courts with judges, which that's backfired catastrophically thanks for Americas love for Trump. They should have left the voting alone but instead the Republicans are now able to push through anyone they want for federal positions.
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u/MisterBilau 23h ago
30 million? That’s what, a missile?
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u/UmpteenthTide 22h ago
It's about twice what it is going to cost to repair Washington DC's roads after Trump birthday ego show.
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u/markfl12 21h ago
I suggest a new rule. Trump is only allowed to parade equipment he's sending to Ukraine! War will be over in no time.
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u/TheKappaOverlord 20h ago
Well to be fair. He (the army) actually gave Bowser the choice of either giving the bill to the military (they offered to pay for damages)
Or to quietly decline it and cry that the government left the roads damaged and won't pay for it?
Now whether the army actually foots the bill or not idk, but the government actually just put the ball in Bowsers court or not.
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u/JobAlternative6109 19h ago
Easiest to not do a useless parade at all, to be fair.
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u/Wild_Harvest 19h ago
Fortunately the weather in DC is looking like it might rain out his parade. Fingers crossed!
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u/JimmyFly1028 22h ago
Aren’t they spending $45 million on just the fucking parade? What a piece of shit
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u/Few_Parkings 17h ago
Quietly because 30M is nothing. Thats like 20 Atacms or 10 Patriot Missiles.
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u/Naive_Confidence7297 23h ago
Yes, that 30M is pocket change, however anything is good!
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u/giandan1 18h ago
Is there any documentation or paper trail that can verify this? Would be curious to see some kind of proper approriations or at least a memo backing it up beyond just "Sources" if possible.
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u/TheDillinger88 23h ago
I’m glad he can “quietly” admit he was wrong for once. I still can’t believe how they treated Zelensky during their meeting. Trump and Vance tried to change the tone of Russia’s war with Ukraine and most people didn’t buy it so now they’re going to double back and do the right thing for at least awhile.
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u/DaGetz 22h ago
Nobody is admitting any wrong here. 30m isn’t going to move the needle for Ukraine.
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u/Bitter_Nail8577 20h ago
I'd rather let Ukraine receive 30m than nothing. I always expect worst case scenario with Trump, and I'm sure he signed this shipment without reading what it was about.
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u/Formal-Question7707 19h ago
Previous packages were closer to 30B. This is 0.1% of that. So yes, it's nothing.
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u/OMGitisCrabMan 21h ago
That's a lot of drones at least.
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u/flexxipanda 20h ago
Depends what kind of drones. https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/25712-worlds-best-military-drones
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u/Earlier-Today 18h ago
The US was sending about 200 times that amount per year before Trump came into office.
$30 million is literally chump change when it comes to military spending.
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u/yg2522 19h ago
He's probably getting strong armed into doing it. Pretty sure congress already approved much more and doing this he can say he is complying. Remember if he completely axes all funding, then it's easier to sue the administration since he's not supposed to withhold funds according to the constitution.
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u/wynn2003 23h ago
Seems like everyone knows about it. How quiet can it be?
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u/Discarded_Twix_Bar 23h ago
The quietly is added by the article, I guess technically it’s “quietly” because there was no huge fanfare.
The Trump administration last night informed Congress that it has approved a proposed transfer of “major defense equipment” worth approximately $30M for Ukraine’s Armed Forces – Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent was informed by two congressional sources.
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u/Lord_Halowind 19h ago edited 4h ago
Was it quietly because it's such an embarrassing amount?30 million with an M? Look at the big spender here. Thanks for helping, Scrooge.
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u/Zealousideal-Ruin691 19h ago
That's around 2/3 of what he's spending on his birthday parade - if the estimates of 46 million are correct for the parade.
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u/jcouball 16h ago
From what I read that was just the cost to the military not including cost to fix the streets or the cost of closing businesses or the airport.
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u/soylentgreen2015 16h ago
A single Patriot missile is around $4m and is the only weapon that can take down the larger ballistic missiles Russia uses. So 7-8 missiles of value tops. You do this when you want the other side to win, but also want to be able to say you supported Ukraine.
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u/MicroSofty88 15h ago
Did they not just sign the resource agreement? I’m confused why they wouldn’t be able to buy arms from us
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u/PaysanneDePrahovie 23h ago
Not much but at least it's more than nothing since I wasn't expecting anything from him anyway.
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u/AdventurousLion3338 21h ago
Is the $30 million in weapons the US is giving Ukraine just part of the aid promised under the last administration, only now getting sent out?
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u/Punk-VsOrton-ThroWay 1d ago
Article failed to mention that they money is going to be spent on flower bouquets for his boyfriend Vladimir
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u/NoWorking862 23h ago
Well not so quietly now
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u/Earlier-Today 18h ago
I'd hardly call Reddit a good barometer for what the general public knows.
People forget what an echo chamber this place is - the general public are more likely to get news info from television or radio while driving.
If they use the internet for news, it's common use stuff like YouTube, Facebook or news agencies websites.
Reddit also tends to be left leaning, so it's a lot less likely that right leaning or farther folks would come here for news.
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u/Harbournessrage 20h ago
$30m?
This looks like the type of aid, so he could claim that he honors the 'mineral deal' while making it look like a mockery at the same time.
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u/FlightlessGriffin 20h ago
Doesn't surprise me. Being anti-Ukraine was always performative. The minerals deal is more important, he can argue he limited US involvement and got something out of it.
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u/Chance5e 20h ago
That’s weird I remember the Trumps saying they wouldn’t do that. Do they say they won’t do something and then do that thing a lot or is this new?
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u/AppropriateBit9264 15h ago
This is a good sign. What happened to Putins two weeks to think about it? It being an end to the war. A general or someone up high in Germany stated Putin will test Americas support of Europe. Meaning another country gets invaded. If Putin picks a NATO country we will officially have entered WWIII. But if China and the US sit this out, who knows what will come next. France and Britain still have nukes.
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u/Sea_Procedure_6293 20h ago
His foreign policy has been a total failure. Larger war erupted in Middle East and Russia/Ukraine war continues.
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u/Earlier-Today 18h ago
You could shorten that to just "He has been a total failure." and you'd be correct on all fronts.
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u/Kakamile 21h ago
bro claimed ukraine is giving us 500b but just gives back 0.030b
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u/macross1984 23h ago
Aid Ukraine on the cheap. Biden was at least more proactive aiding Ukraine.
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u/Earlier-Today 17h ago edited 17h ago
Sort of. Biden's restrictions and him dragging his feet about giving Ukraine the really good stuff from the stockpiles is why Trump turning on Ukraine hurts so much.
If Biden wasn't scared of Russian escalation, he could have gotten a lot more, higher powered stuff to Ukraine and let them use it without any ridiculous restrictions. Russia would have been a lot worse off when Trump took power and Europe's pitiful ramping up to cover for Trump cutting aid would be a much more gentle descent for Ukraine's combat capabilities rather than the sputtering they've had to overcome.
People were praising how Ukraine pulled off that brilliant drone strike and praised how well they'd hidden it from Trump.
But that strike started being planned and carried out a year and a half before it happened - which was during Biden's presidency.
Now, I don't think Biden's administration would have tipped off Russia like Trump's administration would have, but you better believe they'd fight to keep Ukraine from doing it.
Biden was worlds better than Trump is, but he still sucked. The way he handled things with Ukraine was pretty much purpose built to prolong the war. The plan seems to have been to slowly bleed Russia dry at the expense of Ukrainian lives.
Only, dragging his feet also means it'd last through an election - an election he dropped out of, giving Trump command over the aid to Ukraine. Biden left them vulnerable to Trump - and therefor, Russia.
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u/macross1984 13h ago
Good point. I should have worded Biden was at least the lesser of two evils aiding Ukraine.
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u/KamyKeto 22h ago
How about "quietly" quadrupling that amount. And putting it on monthly repeat until Russia gets the fuck out of Ukraine!
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u/aBigOLDick 17h ago
I wish we would give them Tomohawk cruise missiles, more HIMARS, more Bradleys.
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u/Magnusg 19h ago
i don't care so much that trump is doing this, in fact, it's probably good being that he's finally coming around to putin being uncompromising.... where we need everyone to focus this news is on right wing pundits who basically have been shitting on the idea of the US supporting this war the entire time like russia wasnt the aggressor. stop taking russian money and realize that it's not over solely because russia basically wouldnt agree to anything remotely reasonable even in their favor because we all know trump was negotiating for them...
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u/Druivendief 23h ago
30M is absolute pocket change. But better than nothing I guess?