Trump wants us to spend a bomb on defence. We should think twice
Has some new existential threat to each of the countries emerged? Or is the fear that a few countries may come under foreign invasion but, since we don't know which few it will be, all of us are arming ourselves to the teeth just in case?
Let's assume we spend these many trillions on armaments rather than lesser worries such as health, education and climate change, and nothing untoward occurs. Will this prove the money was well spent, or that it was a complete waste? We stocked up for a party, but no one came. We'll never know.
Unsurprisingly, this strange behaviour was in response to a pronouncement of Donald Trump, who told us and his other presumed allies we should no longer rely on America's defence shield, but spend more on our own security.
Initially, his demand was for us to increase our spending from 2 per cent of national income to 3 per cent, a rise of about $28 billion a year. This would swell defence spending by more than half, with the increase almost as much as federal spending on public hospitals.
But then Trump's Defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said the countries of South-East Asia should boost their spending to 5 per cent of national income.
The European members of NATO have been told the US will be shifting forces away from Europe, so they should greatly increase their own spending. They've agreed to increase it to 3.5 per cent. In Britain's case, that would be up from a bit more than 2 per cent.
It's remarkable how few people have remarked on what a strange way this is to decide how much more needs to be spent. You'd think the defence people would decide it based on the cost of the extra weapons and programs they judged to be needed to complete our security.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
7NEWS
20 minutes ago
- 7NEWS
Donald Trump calls Jeffrey Epstein controversy ‘bulls--t,' calls supporters who care about it ‘weaklings'
US President Donald Trump is accusing some of his onetime supporters of being 'weaklings' who are falling prey to Democratic 'bulls--t' about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — concluding that he no longer wants their support. Declaring that Democrats had struck 'pay dirt' in the Epstein scandal, Trump said his political opponents were using the issue to attack him. 'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker,' Trump wrote in a missive on Truth Social. 'They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.' Trump said the Epstein controversy — roiling now for more than a week after his Justice Department announced in a memo that there was no Epstein 'client list' and it didn't plan to release any more documents in the investigation — was distracting from the successes of his presidency. 'I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country's history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,' he wrote. 'Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!' The angry message was Trump's strongest rebuke of his own supporters, many of whom have been vocally furious about his administration's handling of the Epstein matter. While Trump has dismissed the controversy as sordid and uninteresting, before his post on Tuesday he hadn't gone as far as disavowing some of his staunchest allies who continue to press for more information.
Perth Now
24 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Wall Street steady as investors assess inflation data
Wall Street's main indexes are largely steady as investors sift though fresh inflation data and earnings reports from corporate giants. US producer prices held steady in June, defying expectations as higher costs for tariff-hit goods were offset by a slump in services. According to the Labor Department, the Producer Price Index climbed 2.3 per cent year-over-year, slightly below forecasts, while remaining flat for the month. "It's (PPI data) basically been in the same range. It's a non-story. So the tariffs are most likely not going to filter into inflation," said Robert Ruggirello, chief investment officer at Brave Eagle Wealth Management. Tuesday's inflation report revealed that rising prices, driven in part by US President Donald Trump's tariffs, have put a damper on hopes for more aggressive Federal Reserve rate cuts. Money markets pricing show traders are betting on just 43 basis points of Fed easing by year-end, with a July rate cut off the table and the odds of a September move now a coin flip. On the earnings front, Goldman Sachs rose 0.4 per cent after posting a 22 per cent surge in second-quarter profit, with wild market swings propelling equities trading revenue to record highs. Morgan Stanley also reported a profit boost, thanks to market volatility energising its trading desks, but its shares dipped 1.6 per cent. Meanwhile, Bank of America added 0.4 per cent as its traders capitalised on the market's turbulence, helping to lift second-quarter profits. Johnson & Johnson jumped 4.5 per cent after the drug maker reported a second-quarter profit above estimates and raised its full-year sales forecast by about $US2 billion ($A3.1 billion). Most sectors on the S&P were trading in the green. Real estate led the gains by rising 1.0 per cent, boosted by Prologis' upbeat forecast. Shares of the warehouse-focused real estate investment trust rose 4.1 per cent. Meanwhile, US semiconductor equipment makers were down after ASML warned it may not achieve growth in 2026 because of US tariff uncertainty. Applied Materials and Lam Research fell about 4.0 per cent each while KLA Corp was down 3.7 per cent. In early trading on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45.66 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 44,061.36, the S&P 500 gained 1.62 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 6,245.38 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 25.19 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 20,652.61. Trade tensions also remained in focus after Trump announced a 19 per cent tariff on Indonesian goods as part of a new deal, one of several rushed agreements ahead of an August 1 deadline for broader tariff hikes. Meanwhile, the European Union was preparing retaliatory measures should talks with the United States falter. Meanwhile, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic was headed to Washington DC for tariff talks. Investors have shown resilience in recent weeks, largely ignoring Trump's ongoing tariff rhetoric and instead focusing on potential trade agreements that could de-escalate the global trade conflict. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.63-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.51-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and three new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 28 new highs and 26 new lows.
Daily Telegraph
an hour ago
- Daily Telegraph
‘He didn't fool me': Four words from Donald Trump that say so, so much
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News. Comment Three quotes here, all uttered by Donald Trump after he took office in January, and all referring to Vladimir Putin. 'I believe he wants peace. I mean, I know him very well. Yeah, I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn't.' 'I think he'll keep his word. I've spoken to him, I've known him for a long time now, you know? I don't believe he is going to violate his word.' 'I believe him. I think we're doing very well with Russia, and right now they're bombing the hell out of Ukraine. I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine.' And here is another, from this week, which came as Mr Trump finally lost patience with Putin's doublespeak. 'He's fooled a lot of people. He fooled Bush, he fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn't fool me.' Donald Trump. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP A bit shameless, isn't it? This man's capacity to revise history so blatantly, and to expect everyone to accept it, as though we have neither eyes, nor ears, nor functioning brains. Putin did fool George W. Bush, who after meeting the Russian leader, claimed to have gotten 'a sense of his soul' and said he was 'very trustworthy'. He did at least somewhat fool Barack Obama, who got then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton to pose for a stunt with an obnoxious red 'reset button', representing the relationship between America and Russia. That predictably doomed move fell over when Crimea happened. Joe Biden? Hmm. He did agree to attend a summit with Putin during his presidency, which felt naive at the time. But the Biden administration was unequivocal about Russia's intentions in the lead-up to its invasion of Ukraine. So there is plenty to criticise in other US presidents' approaches to the Putin regime. But that last part, the 'he didn't fool me', takes some goddamn cheek. Nothing any of the presidents above said or did comes close to rivalling the credulousness with which Mr Trump has approached Putin, one of the most nakedly malicious leaders on the planet, since he first took power in 2017. Vladimir Putin. Picture: Maxim Shemetov/AFP And this goes right to the heart of the eternal, perhaps unanswerable question about Donald Trump: Does he actually believe his own rhetoric? When he says something brazenly false, as is his habit, is he doing it cynically, with the knowledge that enough people will believe him anyway? Or has he convinced himself it's the truth? Put in context: does Mr Trump genuinely think Putin did not outfox him, did not string him along with fake talk of peace for months? Or is the American President saying such nonsense with full self-awareness, to cover up his own embarrassment? The shift in stance from the Trump administration this week is an improvement. It's a recognition, seven years after Mr Trump met Putin in Helsinki and took his word over that of his own country's intelligence agencies, that the murderous Russian dictator with a record of breaking nearly every pledge he makes might not be trustworthy. So in relative terms, OK. Good, even. If American policy towards Russia is on a spectrum, with exploitable innocence on one end and cynicism on the other, we are at least heading in the right direction. In absolute terms though? Pissweak. A 50-day deadline, after which new sanctions might be imposed unless Putin agrees to a peace deal. Why not impose those sanctions now? The man has lied to you for months, Donald. At no point has he displayed anything resembling good faith. Why give him the leeway of a delay? Do it now. We've already seen Putin bomb Ukraine again since Mr Trump's announcement. He hardly seems worried. And honestly, why should he be? He's dealing with a serial flip-flopper, whose record indicates he'll sooner push back a deadline than enforce it. Genuine shoutout to George Bush though for his naivety. I mean come on, you can judge that guy from his skin alone, never mind his soul. And he's dealing with an American President who seeks to project strength, but even in his own telling comes off as credulous and manipulable. 'I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done,' he said of Putin, and a peace deal, while speaking to reporters after completing the flip-flop. 'And I always hang up and say, 'Well, that was a nice phone call.' And then missiles are launched into Kyiv, or some other (Ukrainian) city. And I say, 'Strange.' 'And after that happens three or four times, you say the talk doesn't mean anything.' No s***. He has retold a version of that anecdote several times, with First Lady Melania Trump usually serving as the unlikely snap back to reality. 'We thought we had a deal. Numerous times. I'd get home, I'd say, 'First Lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we're finished.'' As in, finished hammering out a viable path to peace between Russia and Ukraine. 'And then I'll turn on the television. Or she'll say to me one time, 'Wow, that's strange, because they just bombed a nursing home.' I said, 'What?'' What's the fictional equivalent here? Mon Mothma gets off the holo-phone with Emperor Palpatine. 'That was a really wonderful talk I had with Palpatine,' she tells some other rebel bigwig. 'Wow, that's strange, because he just blew up Alderaan,' her colleague replies. To which Mothma, would-be leader of the free worlds, offers an impotent: 'What!?' Before proceeding to publicly insist she was the only rebel leader to never be fooled by Palpatine. (Do watch Andor. Wonderfully written show, regardless of your politics. No I will not stop sneaking TV recommendations into serious rants about serious politics.) Apparently Melania Trump is more abreast of international war news than her husband, who has the entire US national security apparatus at his beck and call. But that's a discussion for another day. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP Look, there are two elements here. One is US policy towards Russia, which has improved a bit. Second is Mr Trump's personality, which at the age of 79 is probably set in carbonite. The man's hatred of his political opponents, or for anyone who dares to criticise him, is one thing. Plenty to dissect there. But the shamelessness with which he can lie through his teeth to his own supporters, and mock the intelligence of the people who gave him the power he now wields? That, more than anything he could ever say or do to the Democrats or the media, speaks to his character. Twice this week, we have seen it in action, once with the Putin backflip, and again with his attitude towards the Jeffrey Epstein case. 'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,' Mr Trump said today when asked about the backlash against his sudden indifference within MAGA. 'It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring. And I don't understand why it keeps going. I think, really, only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.' Jeffrey Epstein. Picture: Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department Boring, is it? The years-long, unchecked, unprosecuted sex trafficking of minors to the rich and powerful? You find that boring? Only Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were charged. All their clients are free without consequence. An election campaign last year in which Mr Trump and his associates eagerly fed the conspiracy theories. And now Mr Trump cannot comprehend why people still talk about it. Nor can he understand the dissatisfaction of those who were promised a reckoning by his own confidants – Vice President J.D. Vance, Attorney-General Pam Bondi, head honchos of the FBI Kash Patel and Dan Bongino – only to be told to 'move on' without any result. The blow-up over Epstein, this past fortnight, is of Mr Trump's making. His handpicked officials said they were practically drowning in Epstein-related material never before seen by the public. His officials released what they called 'phase one' of documents to selected right-wing influencers, implying more phases were coming. His Attorney-General said the Epstein 'client list', long sought by the cranks, was on her desk for review. Now they say there never was any client list, and no more material will be released, and no third parties will be pursued, and Mr Trump's contemptuous reaction boils down to: 'Why do you even care?' It's insulting. Donald Trump. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP And so is his rhetoric concerning Putin. Mr Trump told his supporters he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office, if not before. He has since sought to brush that off as a joke, as though we all have the memory of a goldfish, and cannot recall the dozens – no, sorry, hundreds – of times he said it without a hint of humour. It's the Trump playbook now, apparently. Say something ridiculous. Have it blow up in your face. Pretend it never happened. Assume your followers will accept it unquestioningly. 'Look, it's clear from what the President himself has said – although he wouldn't put it this way – that he got played by Putin, and dragged on for months,' the longtime chief political analyst for Fox News, Brit Hume, said this week. 'And he was being jollied along under the impression, that Putin had obviously given him, that Putin wanted to end the war, and was prepared to negotiate from where we are. 'And it's pretty clear now that Putin didn't want to end the war where we are. He had more conquests in mind, and perhaps wanted his whole original purpose of taking Ukraine.' We all bloody knew it, the whole time. Hume knew it, I knew it, you probably knew it. Putin certainly knew it. The only man in the dark, the only man of actual consequence fooled, was the one with genuine power to act. Originally published as 'He didn't fool me': Four words from Donald Trump that say so, so much
