I cant even make up corruption this blatant. My imagination is not this stupid.

SURELY THERE IS A CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW PROCESS FOR THE EXPORT OF ARMS. SURELY A CHECK OR BALANCS EXISTS. REFUSING THE SALE OF F35S TO CHINA THROUGH SAUDI WILL HAVE BIPARTICIAN SUPPORT.

The AECA contains procedures for congressional joint resolutions of disapproval concerning notified FMS and DCS transactions. Section 36(b)(1) of the AECA prohibits the U.S. government from issuing an LOA if Congress "enacts a joint resolution prohibiting the proposed sale."

GOOD GOOD WAIT

Congress has never successfully blocked a proposed arms sale via a joint resolution of disapproval.

WAIT

The President has the authority to waive the AECA statutory review periods

Clown government

source https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL31675#_Toc193291696

The liberalist faith in law is a huge blind spot. The system is corrupt. It's been corrupt for a while now, but it's unmissable obvious now, and it disturbs me how many people are still saying strange things like how the constitution will stop this, the judges will stop this, the police will stop this. Corruption is systemic, not individualistic. The corrupt system isn't coming to save people from the corrupt system!
If you aren't already, organize locally with others to perform real political action through our worker power. Even if your local area has to build from scratch - the sooner we as citizens develop political power, the more lives are saved.
Super solid post. References cited from the government itself. Depressing that it’s on this topic though. Damn.

I think Saudi Arabia being, y'know, Saudi Arabia is bad enough without throwing in that "Chinese ally" thing lol.

monarchist nation build on slave labor, that murders political dissidents, queer people and indigenous groups? yea, that's probably bad or whatever idk, ~~i mean we did all that too and we're the good guys yknow~~
chinese ally???? now they've crossed a line!!!! 😡😡😡
- You seem to have repeated yourself a little bit there. Minus the monarchy.
Sorry for calling again but could you please paint "DEATH TO AMERICA" on the jets? We got those new hangars and don't want to make them all smelly right away.
Kind of ironic too because as evil as they are, SA are absolutely an American ally as well.
- But an ally ideologically (until trump). Previous governments just supported them because of oil.
Saudi Arabia isn't going to reverse engineer an F35. China will reverse engineer an F35.
It's never stopped the US from selling them modern-for-the-time F-15s, their advanced versions, and other advanced weapons systems. Or Europe from selling them the Eurofighter Typhoon.
I'm not saying this is the same or not a horrible decision full of corruption. Just that SA has been a longstanding strategic ally that has received a lot of military support from Western countries.
You’d figure a bunch of racists that spent the last twenty years crying about shariah law would a few very specific problems with Saudi Arabia.

We got him boys. Pack it up. For the first time in a life of unchecked blatant corruption he will experience consequences. Yup. This is the one that does it. All that other treason was foreplay. Yessir; good day's work. We can all finally heal.

You kind of have to take a step back and just be impressed for a minute.
For this man with all his fuckups and perceived incompetence, he's done an amazing job of installing yes men and cronies at every avenue that could have enforced any consequences for his actions. Can you imagine what it would be like to see someone apply a similar energy to actually improving our country.
- Donny 2 Inches did NOTHING, which is the only positive thing he's good at. His owners and handlers handed a list of names to him and he just delegated all the appointments. Almost none have been confirmed by Congress, btw. Just like he has lawyers clean up for him, he doesn't actually DO anything in the courtroom.

Burger republic.

"A banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, where the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the ruling class. Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites."

"A borgor republic is a country with an economy of the best type of capitalism, where the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the job creators. Typically, a borgor republic has a 100% meritocratic society, usually a lot of lazy welfare queens looking for handouts and a ruling class of brilliant, innovative job creators and democratically elected politicians selflessly carrying out the will of the people."

this is treason

Add it to the pile...

Not the first time he acted traitorously and it certainly won't be the last.
Yeah, the meme assumes the US is a country of laws for those in power. Common mistake.
Yep. Now we're totally going to pursue this, aren't we. Right?
- Of course you guys are.
  They'll get right on it after they've done the insurrection treason stuff...and then the traitory stolen top secret documents stuff that were kept in an unlocked ticket next to a fax machine!
  Ha, just kidding. It'll all wait until he dies, and then maaaaybeee someone will look into it. And mayyybee a few of the lower echelon of his cronies miiiight get a slap on the wrist about it. Possibly a few fines.
  By that time he'll have sold off even more high tech secrets for more buildings in places where hardly anyone will visit.
- Who is "we"? The corrupt government? The corrupt legal framework? The only way to fight a corrupt system like this is to develop political power outside of the system - we must all organize with fellow citizens to wield collective worker power.
Good thing is, they're doing it all out in the open. Everything is documented. They might have impunity on their side now, but not forever.

Yes the Trump is made of Trump

The trumpberries taste like trumpberries!
- I keep magnifying, but it's still Trump. It's Trumps all the way down.

America has concentrated far too much power in the presidency if this is something trump can just decide to do

No Congress abdicated its duty and so did the Supreme Court. If they were doing their jobs Sit like this wouldn't happen.
- To be fair Supreme Court was taken over by Republicans because the constitution is shit and with partisan SP there was no one to make sure Congress or the President follow the law.
The Patriot Act of 2001 destroyed checks and balances.
I opposed the Patriot Act because of the lack of checks and balances built into the legislation. Congress was being asked to give the executive enormous authority and then to step back and trust the executive to implement it responsibly.
The Patriot Act, to me, represented unchecked executive power. Congress was giving authorities to law enforcement that they had long requested, even before 9/11, and was agreeing to do so with minimal oversight built into the system.
I recommend to read all they have to say about it.
That said, the whole thing was already prepared and waiting in a drawer for something like 9/11 to happen. The USA was very much Not OK even before that.
I barely know anything about the US presidency, but I could've sworn the presidency doesn't have this power.
No?
- Not legally
- Narrator: They Did

Lots of futility in this thread and I sure get that. But this time IS slightly different. Trump's invincibility aura is gone, and the cuts are now making him bleed. The East Wing. The piggy comment. MTG flipping. Epstein files. Redistricting. Republicans are suddenly trying to put air between themselves and Trump, get MAGA to turn on Trump. The time for schadenfreude is nigh.

I'm sorry, but after everything we've seen over the last decade, this comment is WAY too optimistic.
Republican senators had the golden opportunity to rid their party of Trump at the tail end of his first term after he lost an election and incited an insurrection.
They didn't.
The only hope I can see is that they recognize that at this point he could literally keel over dead any day and they may be planning their exit strategy. But I'm pretty sure that's just "slide Vance in" and they don't really need to do that until Trump is actually dead.
I'm sure they're concerned about the mid-terms but I don't think their strategy for improving their image before then is getting rid of Trump. I think they have other plans for that. They've hitched their wagon to him. And he owns the hearts and minds of every racist, sexist, ignorant piece of shit in this country. And there's A LOT of those motherfuckers out there. That's valuable to their party.
Give it two months they will all suck his balls and dick again and ask for afters. As long as you hate the same people it's water under the bridge 🌉
The unfortunate reality is that MAGA is only turning on Trump in the slightest possible manner because they see his potential fumble. It’s acknowledging writing on the wall, it’s not a push against their king.
They’re not attracted to winning, in the sense that they may come to reason and stand for what’s right… no. They’re just adverse to loosing, in the sense that they cling to whichever side seems more powerful to them.
Trump is just one bandaged ear away from having his tea-sac in their throats again.

Treason is legal when you're Trump.

everything is legal when you're dumpy. EVERYTHING. Including rape.
- "L'Etat, c'est moi", but in the voice of a farting ketchup bottle
- It turns out that "when you're famous, they let you do it" is Trump's core political guideline.
- Is it rape if "they let you do it"?
legal ?
Mandatory i'd say

Could the OP not think of any reason this would be a bad thing other than China? Not the slave labor? Not the support for autocracies? Not the crimes against humanity? Fucking yanks man.

That said, I have no particular opinion on the China thing, let Trump destroy Western military supremacy; I'll happily watch.

*Other than China being able to reverse-engineer our military tech? I mean, they probably have our building schematics through other means, but isn't that the main faux pas?
- but isn't that the main faux pas?
  No, that's the main faux pas if you're a US liberal with no care for human life that doesn't meet a property minimum or resides outside your borders, and not being that I don't give a shit about China getting access to US military tech. Arming Saudi Arabia is bad because Saudi Arabia is an autocratic imperialist slaver state.
- Didn't China already hack the DoD, or some other contractor, and steal the F-22 or F-35 plans? I swear I read this a few years ago.
- Other than China being able to reverse-engineer our military tech?
  I mean, that's good, isn't it? Or are you in favour of world dominance of the American military industrial complex? American weapons are primarily used to bomb brown children, the more they're reverse-engineered the better
West != USA
- Yeah but F-35 is a NATO-wide program if I understand this stuff right. The F-35 and F-22 are also the only fifth-gen fighters the West has, so the effects of this, if there are any, wouldn't only be felt by America.
Needed to appeal to American supremacists by mentioning China at least once. It can't be truly evil unless CHINA!!!

Everything Trump has done from day one has been treason. For some reason the self appointed patriots don't mind.

Taking a bribe to let China reverse engineer our next generation fighter jet should be the kind of thing that has consequences. That’s going to cost a lot of lives down the road if things go sideways.

It could cost a lot of American lives. Could also save a bunch of Chinese ones.
- It could also cost our lives as a US "ally". Since they are the only fighter jet my country (Holland) is buying. Since China is a strong supporter of Russia it's sure that they will get access to any countermeasures as well.
  IMO we should sell those things and buy something else like the much cheaper alternatives from Europe.
  But my country is also becoming pretty fascist and idealises America so they probably will just cave.
  At least there's still countries like Spain who have already cancelled their F-35 order 👏
- If you look at the history of military operations performed by both countries, it's pretty clear which one is the more likely option
This sale is horrible for many reasons including military intelligence. However a lot of the responses seem a bit ignorant of the current state of things. I'm sure there are lots of key technologies in materials, aerospace engineering, and digital warfare let alone the strategic intelligence of capabilities. However, China also already has many of the F-35 plans, enough to build a version of their own in the J-35. These fighters are also no longer next gen fighters. They are current 5th gen. Both US and China are developing their next 6th gen fighters.
It echoes of China before their ~2011 anti-corruption campaign, they had a serious issue in previous decades where the CIA would basically pay-to-win, bribing officers to give promotions to their confederates. The point being, a corrupt system is easy to exploit, for any country that has some spare change to use.

Remember when we found out we live in a country where all our military members, past and present, broke their oaths to protect our Constitution and that, as a nation, we don't give a shit if traitors sell us out?

Home of the brave, my asshole.

With all due respect, the best of your technology keeps loosing in competitions and doesn't sell unless you bully countries into buying that crap.

People get mad when I say the US is a paper tiger but the only reason we have such a huge military budget is because of R&D that goes nowhere by a bunch of private companies siphoning government funds plus a fuck ton of military bases that need maintenance funds to give the appearance of having a large military force.
In reality our tech is years behind that of other countries.

Blatant is the key word. They are so high on their own narrative that they don't even try to hide their corruption anymore. After their downfall, we'll have plenty of material to indict & ultimately lock them away with.

After their downfall, we’ll have plenty of material to indict & ultimately lock them away with.
Who's this "we"? You can't use a corrupt system to solve the corrupt system, the corruption involves the legal system (remember who is designing and passing the laws!) and the law enforcement officers. So if you want to have the power to lock them away, you're going to have to organize with fellow citizens to develop worker power outside of the state.
I could be wrong and I admit that I don't have as a firm grasp of US politics as I'd like, but I really cannot see a situation where anyone is going to be able to control Trump to the point that which they might be able to get him from front of a jury. I can't see that happening without some level of conflict. He's already talking about a third term, the only way that doesn't happen is a rebellion, or him having a heart attack or something.
- The current regime will collapse, one way or another, sooner or later. Then we'll get them all in front of judge and/or jury and it'll all be slam dunk thanks to the material they themselves provided.
  Of course I'm hoping this all happens before any of them dies of old age.
- It’s still a huge jump to actually succeed in a third term. Maybe I’m naive but even in the face of blatant flouting the law, I can’t see that happening
  But at least as importantly, Trump is nearing the end of his life. Supreme Court has already covered him with blanket immunity: treason is fine as long as it’s official business, corruption is fine, violating the constitution is fine, personal enrichment by exploiting the government is fine. He’s probably out of the reach of justice, except for the voice of history.
  But all the minions holding themselves above the law to do evil are only protected because of Trump. They can’t buy a pardon from an ethical president, and even Republicans can be ethical. Their time for running amuck is coming to the end. There’s still every chance they will face justice for their crimes.
  And even where they’re not actual crimes, I’m sure Republicans will rediscover their “ethics” when it’s a Democrat President who could act similarly. They will actually help restore order, for fear of leopards eating their faces

But...but hunter biden's laptop...using dad for business in Ukraine....

remember KUSHNER got 2bn investment funds from the saudis? for giving nuclear secrets.

And also handing over information from US spies on dissidents to Mohammed Bin Salman, even if they were family that just opposed him, he trapped them in a hotel and had them all tortured and/or murdered till there was enough alignment to him.
"The Intercept also reported that Kushner’s information on Saudi royals not loyal to MBS was contained in the President’s Daily Brief, a document presented to the President every morning. Kushner lost his access to the document earlier this year when new security clearance rules were instituted.
Eager to consolidate power and rein in the sprawling orbit of the Saudi royal family and aristocratic class, Prince bin Salman listened intently and a week later cracked down on corruption in the country by imprisoning more than 200 members of the country’s ruling class inside the confines of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, charging each with corruption"
- how funny to host the "comedy" show there too.

Any other president would have been thrown in a cell, but for Donny and his cult it’s just normal business as usual.

Could we get sources?

https://apnews.com/article/f35-fighter-jet-saudis-trump-deal-299b47534e121923851e18fd02a57799
Appears there are a number of sources discussing it. It's strange being that Russia is currently selling them air defense systems as well.
- Not that surprising if you think about it. Clearly Russia wants real world data regarding how those systems work against cutting edge US technologies.
- Thank you, saved me a couple of searches
- Not seeing anything in there to support that Trump announced that the sale was happening because the Saudis are doing some deal with him personally.
  That may well be suspected, but to claim it as fact is propaganda.

He's basically a whore, selling off anything you want for $$$.

Fucking hilarious considering his age. He think he's taking that with him?? Fuck off. All the money in the world and you will still die alone and in the dark. The rest of us will be with our loved ones, that sack of crap won't lol

I honestly and deeply believe that he is not loved by anyone surrounding him.
It's almost sad to see a person never knowing what love is. But I cannot help hating him either. He would sell anyone to be just a bit more wealthy. It's incredible how detached a human being can become.

America is in its Zuma era.

South Africa arms deal that landed Zuma in court

Spoiler warning: the country has still not recovered.

Wait, the insurrectionist would commit treason?

He’s committed treason daily for the last ten years. When are we going to do something about it?

Aren’t the F-35s software and updates DRM’d to hell anyway? Thought I read somewhere that Lockheed Martin could remotely kill any F-35 at anytime. They’re the ultimate John Deer.

No hardware or software that you have unfettered access to is un-crackable forever. If China has the will to crack it, they almost certainly have the means. It is only a matter of manhours.
- If someone has physical access to a device its practically impossible to hide things from a dedicated attacker, especially a nation state actor.
  You can read ram for instance straight from the traces rather than from the ram module.
If Lockheed Martin has kill codes for their F35s then China can reverse engineer those kill codes
I don't think that's the case. Its just too big an oversight.
Still complex gear needs a supply chain, so getting on the bad side of the USA still grounds your air wing.

Can't the Pentagon just NOT do it? Just fucking defy him, or sell them shit fake ones

Most of the career Defence personnel in the Pentagon with spines have already been forced out through purges.
The remaining staff are loyal to Trump, or likely have made clear they'll not risk their jobs raising any concerns or objections.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/25/headlines/trump_administration_purges_high_ranking_military_and_intel_officials
I don't think most of the US realises how fucked they are under Trump 2. This is barely 10 months in of a four year term.
- I don’t think most of the US realises how fucked they are under Trump 2. This is barely 10 months in of a four year term.
  Indeed... they are still thinking the military will save them because they marched poorly on the parade the Pedo President wanted... oh no, they said, they can march clockwork but did it poorly to show they are not loyal to trump... as the saying goes "the one requisite for people to believe a lie, is that they WANT to believe it"
Probably but the GOP would call it a coup and fox news would cry.
- So I guess it's time for a coup? Or do Americans need to be fucked even harder by daddy Trump?
He'll fire everyone and SCOTUS will let him do it
- Okay, so let's get fired! Time to standup to this fuck. Or is it better to commit treason in the name of the baby billionaire? What would happen if he fired all the top brass? He would probably lose control of the army.

Time was we would kill traitors. If this is treason, then we should kill him. One person is closer than anyone else to him right now. They could stop all of this.

Nobody in US political leadership wants to set the precedent of facing legal consequences for their actions while in power.
- Sounds like First-past-the-post voting doesn't represent the people accurately.

And what will be done? Everyone in a position to do something is his toady or doing the same thing. This is the end game of individualism and capitalism.

I don't think individualism is bad per se. I'm very left but individualist. It just means I'm not bound to groupthink. I have my own opinions and i temporarily align with political parties but never have unquestioning loyalty to any party or country. If anything that unquestioning loyalty is a hallmark of fascism and not very individualistic. The extreme right is a group cult and people who speak against the group narrative are exiled immediately.
I'm from Holland so being left is a lot more left than in the US. Yet I can still speak my mind at political meetings even if it's against the group opinion.
They do exhibit some individualistic properties but more as a group. But inside the group the forced groupthink is extremely strong.
And individualism isn't just about what's good for a person. I'm individualist but I still care about the environment as it's important to me and the people i care about.
Nothing as long as we set the bar as low as possible and refuse outrage because its distasteful.

How's that independence working out

Wasn't there something about the saudies being complicit in 911 or something?

Not really. Bin-Laden is a wealthy and well-connected Saudi family, but no link between the state and 911 has been made public

Treason comes to Trump as easily as lying does, so it shouldn't be surprising.

Why the bullet hit his ear and not his head?!

God guided that bullet. Directly into a retired fire fighter.
- If anyone still decides to devote their life to God after this, you've really got to start wondering whether this deity is worth your time.
- A retired MAGA firefighter. God works in mysterious ways.

Donny 2 Inches is ruling by proclamation now,,,,,

I don't think China wants or needs this trash

China wants every bit of the F35s technology.
Just another tankie who thinks China's advances aren't based on what they've been able to steal from other countries.
- Just another "free thinker" who believes that a country of 1 billion people, with good quality cheap/free higher education, a massive industrial base, and half a trillion dollars of annual R&D expenditure, can't develop tech on their own. I'm sure there's industrial/military espionage going on, but China is also pulling ahead in many research areas independently. With the way US is treating its scientists, I fully expect in a few years China will be the dominant STEM player in the world, US being second or third after europe.
  Would they benefit from having an F-35 to take apart? Yes. Will they build a relatively competitive fighter jet without any F-35 tech for half the price or less? Also yes.
- just another paranoid American! The reason i love china is because you guys are shitting bricks about it! Anything that scares yanks is good on my book!
China wouldn't want access to an enemies tech?...... And I call myself a dumbass.
- They can just get that info out in the open the secretary of defense signal chats, it's hard to be a dumbass when dealing with bigger dumbasses.
Well China makes some stuff of their own that are very next level. Chengdu J-36, Shenyang J-50.
But they could use hands on experience to find weaknesses in the F35 which will make it's way to Chinese ally Russia which is Europe's main enemy. As a country who only had F35s now this is a big problem.
- They already got that information from some secretary of defense signal chat probably.

Oh, it's bad because China... No problem if this were Israel though. But they already get everything for free.

Sigh. Whatever. It's no worse than anything else he's done. I don’t know how to be angry anymore. I just want them all to stop breathing as soon as possible.

Yet another nothing burger. Release the Esptien files.

At some point, the Epstein files become the distraction. So much horrible shit has happened in this presidency already, with real consequences for innocent people.
So brushing every bit of that aside to just meme "Epstein files" over and over seems like a GREAT service to Trump.
Is he in those files? Oh, definitely. Will he be i n the released version? Probably not. So, what will you do? Keep screaming for the RealTM files all through this presidency, letting him off the hook for everything else because "muh files"?
- At some point, the Epstein files become the distraction
  Great point. But this is a nothing burger because it isn't corruption it is the export version of the F-35 specifically for shitty alleys this has been in the works since Biden. Israel already has the F-35i and is partners with China, SA is weak bitches that do what they are told. Also China already has the blueprints from espionage.
- True I've been wondering if they're just really busy doctoring all those files before they release them and that's why they're stalling.
Yeah. Who cares? We saved gazaaaaaaa....!
/s you dumbfucks

This is entirely expected.

Par for the course.

Go get him