Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

In a shocking move that nobody saw coming the Supreme Court has once again refused to rule on his tariffs. That's the third time now.

The 1st big Euro investment fund to announce divestment from US bonds is the Danish AkedemikerPension.

They plan on selling $100mln in US bonds citing weak market conditions.

https://www.reuters.com/business/danish-pension-fund-divest-its-us-treasuries-2026-01-20/

The decision is rooted in the poor U.S. government finances, ⁠which make us think that we ‍need to make an effort to find an ‌alternative ‌way of conducting our liquidity and risk management," Investment Director Anders Schelde said in a written statement.

"Thus, it is not ⁠directly related ⁠to the ongoing rift between the U.S. and Europe, but of course that didn't make it more ‍difficult to take the decision," he added.

AkademikerPension has in total 164 billion Danish crowns ($25.74 billion) under management, it said ‍on its website.

The American Ambassador to Ireland was in attendance at Eddie Hobbs IRL Forum last weekend.

A motley crew of dingbats, conspiracy theorists, grifters and The American Ambassador to Ireland.

A small but not insignificant message. One that needs to be taken very seriously.

If we do go to the White House we will also be there as representatives of the EU, so we should not kowtow to Trump and be very firm with him.

Fully agree, and I shall be cracking open a tin of Carlsberg export in their honour this evening 😉

On the cancellation of US contracts. As you well know, that really will boil down to however the contract itself is structured and what the penalty and completion clauses might be.
On the topic of Fighters in particular, Europe is quite hamstrung by a current lack of production capacity.
Even with Dassault, Saab & Eurofighter all increasing their line capacity?
Current production capacity for all 3, is less than the US' annual output of F35s and also less than China's J20 output.
Let alone their J10, J15, J16 & J35 production lines.

Europe needs to ramp capacity, and now it needs to do so without recourse to American industrial capacity picking up the slack.

All the Euro F35 partner nations need to step back and assess their force structure and their reliance on the US.

In other threads I have posited the dangers inherent in the shift of Middle Eastern Countries in particular moving to Chinese aircraft.
The "Fighter Diplomacy" that grew out of the Camp David accords, has been initially slowly undermined by steps such as Rafale & Meteor entering service in Egypt.
Now, the Chinese are actively and aggressively marketing J10 & J35 along with missiles that outrage AMRAAM.
The Turks are racing ahead with their own missile development and KAAN is still plodding along too.

The Saudi/Pakistan mutual defence pact and the likelihood of Turkey joining is an alignment of Islamic power that decades of western diplomacy has sought to avoid.
Yet now, is likely to become a NATO analogue with both nuclear weapons and industrial capacity aligned with China.

It's almost a Tom Clancy wet dream in terms of the exponential rise of geopolitical threat.
What must be acknowledged is that as much as China, Russia, Turkey and regional powers had poked at the system to gain advantage.
That the descent of the USA into sabre rattling lunacy over the past 12 months?

Has mad the imperative those nations feel to take advantage and to band together?
Understandable, no matter how distasteful.

Ode to Trump.

Triumph trails your towering stride,

Resolve rings through your rallies wide,

Unmatched in wisdom, with a humble grace,

Mighty your mission, you’re seen every place,

Power pours from your glorious voice,

In humility’s light, you inspire us, rejoice,

Steadfast and shining, you steer the day,

Across the horizon, hope finds a way,

Faithful to the people, you raise all our hearts,

Onward with optimism, bold where it starts,

Overflowing with fervor, your vision takes flight,

Leading with luster into a destiny bright.

Trump has 'liked' a post this afternoon saying the UN and NATO are the real enemies of the US, not China and Russia. He seems to have gone a bit bonkers in the last few days.

What difference would it make if Trump does badly in the mid terms (even if he doesn’t cancel them), he ignores congress and just signs executive orders

so you are suggesting the EU should fight back against Trumps actions, by making Ireland take the hit .

We were here before in 2008 and if the EU push ahead with threats of ruining Irelands economy so they can hit back at America, we are better out of the EU.

He's not wrong if he means us, that being himself and his cronys.

Pushed ahead? I must have missed that.

Ireland would not be better out of the EU, that's a stupid thing to say, or even suggest.

Europe holds $8 Trillion of the U.S. debt in bonds and equities. Over twice the amount of the rest of the world combined. The U.S. key weakness is that it relies on others to pay its bills via large external deficits.

Selling off U.S. bonds will cause the price of those bonds to fall and the yield to rise, increasing the amount the U.S. would have to pay on its debt. That in turn would increase U.S. mortgage rates and the interest rate on personal and business loans and lower the the return on investments.

Japan, a large holder of U.S. bonds are selling them off, and a Danish pensions company have announced they are selling off their holdings of U.S. debt. Its past time for Europe doing the same, as well as hitting them with that tariffs package and put a bit of manners on this administration.

Its all they will understand because from their latest on imposing tariffs on countries that do not agree with them on Greenland, and Trump`s latest on French wine because France will not pay into his latest scam, it`s pointless negotiating any compromise agreement with them as they have clearly shown they will look on it as a weakness and not honour it but rather tear it up and come back with more threats looking for more.