No, this is extremely atypical US imperialism. That’s why the world finds it so shocking. Typical US imperialism is quietly redirecting food aid to support a more US friendly leader taking power, and slipping some arms shipments in as well. Our typical imperialism included strong-arming other world leaders, but only in closed door meetings, followed by shaking hands and smiling with them for the cameras. It was subtly reminding allies that they rely on our militarily might for safety from their more aggressive neighbors, so they owe us support on a global issue. And yes, the more heinous stuff, like assassinations, bribery, supporting coups, and etc. All stuff that’s plausibly deniable, or given a veneer of legitimacy, or just kept unnoticed. By the time any of the awfulness shows through, it’s old news, everyone’s attention has moved on to elsewhere.
Trump is destroying or fucking up at all of that. He’s taken all the winning hands the US has carefully built up and banked over many years, and thrown them in the trash. Following that, his meeting with Zelensky caught global attention by being blatantly naked imperialism running down the street babbling incoherently. If you’re an enemy of the US, or just someone who’s sick of our shit, you may want to celebrate, because we are currently watching American hegemony disintegrate in real time.
A slight improvement could have been a swastika on one arm and mother Russia on the other. And maybe a Nobel Peace Prize receipt and money coming out of Trump’s pocket.
Edited first comment instead of adding new one
This whole thing is so silly. It costs hundreds of millions and something like 18 years to build a rare earth mine. What company would be willing to risk that investment without any sort of meaningful security arrangement?
Because all they want to do is point at the paper and say, “look we made money!”
“and now here’s a big tax cut for the mega rich!”
The dream is more important than reality.
This is how some of Trump’s real estate endeavors worked before he got into politics: hype, and sell to the public markets at an inflated price. For all people criticize him, he’s very good at encouraging the masses to buy things they really shouldn’t buy.
And later? Doesn’t matter, someone else is holding the bag after that, and it’s onto the next thing. Sounds a lot like crypto TBH.
Sounds a lot like crypto
You don’t say
There’s also the issue that only Europe and global south are serious about using rare earths. The US even if it wanted to be a customer/user, is further away from more motivated manufacturing.
Not to nitpick, or make you defend yourself, but I would be interested to see info linked to this developmental timeline.
Most mines are like 3-5 years to develop, and that includes permitting etc.
The number was something I heard on this interview. They seemed to have relevant knowledge. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/27/nx-s1-5308085/rare-earth-minerals-expert-discusses-u-s-ukraine-negotiations-on-ukraines-resources
This is why Trump is extorting Ukraine. The people of the USA are overwhelmingly in favor of helping Ukraine fight against Putin’s imperialistic invasion.
overwhelmingly
50-50 is about ending the war or reclaiming lost territories.
Polls about US support in your link is : “Americans are also split as to whether the U.S. is doing too much (37%), the right amount (31%) or not enough (30%) to aid Ukraine.”
So 37% : “we should do less/abandon/be against Ukraine”
and 62% : “we should continue to back up Ukraine”It’s the same question phrased differently. I’d imagine a significant portion of the “right amount” answers don’t have strong feelings either way.
Regardless, I wouldn’t really consider 62% “overwhelming,” but I guess that"s subjective.
Latin America right now: first time?
The rare earth ploy was never serious. This is stupid. Trump was never going to disobey daddy.
Or “raw earth” as our Idiot In Chief repeatedly says
$500 billion in raw earth sounds like one heck of a logistical challenge.
“supports”
That headline for this editorial cartoon is amazingly bad. The US supports Ukraine because they are our ally and they’re protecting our other allies from getting taken by Russia. We are fighting a proxy war. Trump is sucking Putin’s dick for whatever reason and wanting that “raw earth” with no guarantees to help Ukraine. He has a “we’ll see” after they make a deal.
This comic aged poorly.
Big win for everyone who is anti-US Imperialism. Europe is abandoning the US, standing behind Ukraine. US is losing all its power abroad.
Big win for everyone who is anti-US Imperialism.
Russia and China included, that is the problem.
As an EU citizen I’m happy if we finally stop relying on Daddy USA to protect us, but unless we step up our game, US influence will be just replaced with much worse Russian and Chinese one.
Haha yeah, robbing the country blind and dismantling usa from the inside, the population had zero psychological protection and no resilience at all against standard propaganda warfare because they treated their population so poorly. Not a single shot had to be fired. Too bad all the spoils went to the 2 men that work for the oligarchy, that will use them to fund the invasion in some kind of twiated dark irony. It’s devastating
Europe is abandoning the US
isn’t it rather the inverse? By which i mean: the U.S. has abandoned Europe
Indeed. Meanwhile Europe, despite having a war at its doorstep, is not just holding all the cards but even gets stronger by all of this. Money and assets are getting transferred out of the US into Europe and its allies as they’re more trustworthy and stable, there’s a social movement towards EU (or generally non-US) products, a wave of EU patriotism, independence of nonsensical economical US ideas, countries like Canada shifting their trading partnerships to EU and Asia, braindrain towards the EU, pushes towards a unified EU military (who, combined, would be 2.6 million soldiers strong)…
Seriously, his slogan should’ve said “Make Europe great again”.
Europe is saying all the right things but actions are another matter. When it comes to war, you can’t defeat the enemy by throwing money at them. You actually have to build the factories and manufacture weapons. Europe has been extremely unwilling to do that, instead preferring to buy weapons from the US.
Ukraine to their credit have been going all out to build their own military industrial base. Their domestic drone production is accelerating. They still need a lot of help with air defence systems, artillery shells, small arms, training, and logistics.
That already shifted since 2022, in eastern European countries even since 2014. Granted that these things take time, although companies like Rheinmetall are currently getting investments like hell to build production lines quickly.
In general EU military usually gets sold as too weak for a multitude of reasons. We indeed cut too much investment in the national militaries for too long, however European arms manufacturers are going strong. There’s also the general notion especially in western Europe (and especially in Germany) of not wanting to be seen militaristic but humanistic, which is generally a good thing until someone from the outside tries to take advantage through military force (among other things).
That said, Poland now got a lot of influence in Brussels regarding EU military politics, as other nations had to admit they were right about Russia and their own military strategy all along. And they’re rather blunt about what’s necessary as far as I know.
God I hope our dear leaders do something with all those cards they now hold though
Yes, so I suppose to phrase it better, the US is abandoning it’s vassals, so its vassals are declaring independence. And vassals becoming independent and leaving the empire is the best outcome for anti-Imperialists.
I think you’re going to encounter a serious argument that European nations are not and have never been vassal states of the US
I don’t know… I feel like this is all premeditated. Project 2025 basically describes this exact thing: get EU to stop relying on the US. It’s all a bit more insidious than just Old Donnie being stupid and vain. I truly wonder whether this is a US conservative’s gamble to get stronger allies, or just a much bigger plan to extract more wealth for the rich in the US.
I, for one, would love to see Europe get rid of American dependence, but I have a feeling that everything will go back to the usual after getting peace in Ukraine. The US has enough buffer between them, China and Russia to not care, and plan for much farther ahead. They will keep lining up the pockets of policy makers to get them to lean towards their interests, and 2-3 generations down the line we nudge even closer to far right capitalism. Especially since Europe now might start shifting it’s industry to produce weapons, which will take our focus away from other important areas, like local chip manufacturing.
I’m curious to hear other opinions though. What is your take on all of this?
I have longed for us to detach the umbilical, but it’s kinda sad that the country is being demolished so fast and it will not be fun at all when they start killing women and gays and then some new random thing their leader fancies
Similar thought to your first paragraph, now that the dust is settling. My best guess is the current US playbook is to risk most of the US soft power and take advantage of its current economic position to really bolster its hard power so the US is in a position to exert more direct force/coerce the rest of the world for what it wants and have more control over policy in other countries. If that’s really the case then china is probably the biggest threat to that gamble as it’s been catching up to or surpassing the US in a few industries recently. And if the gamble fails the economy sinks for a while and Europe or china passes the us as the global powerhouse.
The word “imperialism” does not mean what you think that it means.
Which is why they are such pals with Russian imperialism, who are also going after the same thing. Which is why Russia will still continue to attack Ukraine even after their NATO excuse has been disbanded.
Propaganda
I mean, you are right, OP is only concerned about criticizing one imperialism power while downvoting anything that stands with Ukraine or criticizes Russia (how is OP coping with Putin literally praising the current US administration, I wonder), but this political cartoon isn’t wrong. It’s just missing the second page, where Zelenski gave them the finger while keeping the rare Earth minerals for the people fighting the aggressor.
The only moral imperialism is my imperialism
Is it possible, both sides. One diplomatically the other out right invasion? Idk just asking.
