Trump dealt major blow as Europe threatens ‘nuclear option’ over Ukraine
Trump dealt major blow as Europe threatens ‘nuclear option’ over Ukraine
European leaders are considering dumping $2.34 trillion in US debt if Trump abandons Ukraine, potentially triggering an economic crisis worse than 2008
Finally, the EU grows a pair of cojones.
Maybe. Let’s see if they follow through.
God let’s hope so. America has proven they are not leaders so, another country needs to step up and this would definitely do that.
The problem with Trump is that these kinds of threats make him fly into a rage and escalate further. It could widen the relationship between EU and US because of that.
I'm happy EU is biting back for once, but I hate to think how Trump will respond.
Probably with a taco maneuver.
As someone from the US, do it, rip the bandaid off, this is going to get much much worse before things have the chance to get better and good people here have all been rejected from having meaningful power.
edit this news source is questionable
I just love to see Trump's balls in a vice no matter the context.
One thing is certain: NATO members threatening to collapse the US economy if they collaborate with Russia is nothing short of surreal. I must have drifted in some sort of weird alternate reality without realizing it at some point. I wish I could return to the portal where this happened...
You need a small vice for the taco in chief
Do they make vises that small?
What's does it mean to dump debt?
I’m no economist and will probably get this wrong, but since there is nobody else here… least I can do is give you enough an answer that someone more knowledgeable will come and correct me.
Basically, governments can print magic slips of paper called “bonds” that people will want to buy for two primary reasons: (1) they get interest when they hold the bonds (interest paid by taxes), and (2) the bond is considered a safe way to store value (like how a house is considered a safe way to store value). The government, in return for selling those magic pieces of paper, gets the money used to buy the bonds. It’s the Treasury Bond market.
Now here’s two important details about the bond market: (1) Bonds have an inverse relationship with cost and interest rates. If stockpiles of bonds get sold, that increases the supply of bonds which causes price to fall — adversely causing interest rates to hike up. (2) Because U.S. Treasury bonds are considered risk-free, all other interest rates in the economy (mortgages, car loans, corporate debt) are built on top of the Treasury yield (Example: If a 10-year Treasury yields 5%, a bank might offer a 10-year mortgage at 5-6%). Basically, Treasury rates set the floor for almost all borrowing costs.
So if a foreign state sells massive quantities of bonds, interest rates everywhere can shoot up. That can make all of our existing debt too difficult to pay back. We’d be stuck with three options if it gets bad enough: (1) default on the debt, (2) debase our currency by printing enough money to push the problem down the road, or (3) balance the governments budget.
From what I understand, we’ve already pushed the limits of option 2 during the Housing Crisis and COVID. Printing more money is talked about as though it’s impossible without causing more harm than good. Honestly, I don’t know what happens if the bond market cracks at this point… a depression comparable to TGD?
From what I understand, we’ve already pushed the limits of option 2 during the Housing Crisis and COVID. Printing more money is talked about as though it’s impossible without causing more harm than good.
The neoliberal claim that the amount of money printed directly influenced inflation has been tested and couldn't be proven so far.
Hyperinflation is either caused by too much demand or too little supply of goods, or by greedy fucking billionaires price fixing.
They still keep making that claim and neoliberal governments (pretty much all of them) still act on it because it makes rich people richer. Nations sell their public infrastructure or make other bad deals to beg private actors for money, those earn interest and dividends.
As long as the USD is the de facto world currency it also seems highly unlikely that any amount of money printing would hit it's value too hard. There's always demand for dollars. On the other hand, Trump is working hard on incentivizing the world to use different currencies.
Thank you.
Also 3 is infeasible because the rich own congress and the poor are struggling really bad right now. You can't cut the fat off someone skinny and we've spent the majority of 2025 cutting large chunks of muscle off to get a bit of fat. The only realistoc options to balance the budget are to cut military spending (including ice and police), or to start levyying massive taxes that will either impoverish the middle class or actually do a dent in the rich.
1 is somehow actually the worst option of the three though. The united states' wealth comes in part because we always pay our debts. This is how we got here. Borrowing money is extremely low cost for us so we just do it constantly. It became politicized with the two santas strategy, but we rely on cheap debt to have the power to do things. If we default shit like high speed rail, a border wall, single payer health care, war with Venezuela, and even mythical non partisan expensive projects become financially impossible without taking on self destructive amounts of debt.
Unfortunately, I don't think the administration understands any of that. Trump will print money, cut medicaid entirely, and demand we all go hungry for his vanity while he eats his newly hundred dollar big mac
Haven't they threatened this already? I say do it. Dump the debt and watch Trump go mad. The real fuck stick though is Miller. Trump is just lettings him fucking Nazi all over the place.
Miller is less dangerous than Vance: the former is an obvious nutjob while the latter, as much the Nazi as Miller, masquerades as a somewhat reasonable - if slightly creepy - human being
Miller is one of the writers of project 2025. Vance is a dumbass mouth piece that follows directions. He's like the little kid behind the large bully.
I've seen other articles floating this idea but is this something that's confirmed? This article refers to the Wall Street Journal but is there a concrete source in which EU representatives are quoted or a written proposal that would suggest such a course of action for me to look up?
Not that I have been able to find. This news source is also considered to typically not be credible.
I was going to ask the same. Also how come a US outlet has this and I haven't seen anything on Europe-centric channels.
Sometimes one just has to wait a day or so.
I'm also unclear about what "dumping" those trillions actually means? If we truly had the USA by the balls like that I'm sure I'd have heard about this sooner.
Everyone has the US by the balls, that's what the USD being reserve currency means.
Everyone owns a lot of USD, both cash and securities, so when the US prints money, inflation hits all the world.
Dumping basically means saying "hey, I've got the entire US GDP here in cash USD, I'm selling it for 100 EUR", and watching the US go hyperinflating.
The catch is that it would crash the world economy.
The Express? Really? Get me a better source
Right wing media company saying false (based on what I've read) information. Typical, references that the wall street journal got information from European intelligence agencies. Yet, I haven't seen anything to corroborate that from the WSJ itself. Intelligence agencies aren't typically known for posting and explaining their plans. If the US economy crashes, the world's economy crashes. It would be economic mutually assured destruction.
If it was any other paper, including weekly world news and the national enquirer, I might take notice. It's the express. I personally have never read anything accurate or correct in that paper.
The Express isn't even good for lining bird cages.
The nuclear option should be EU giving nuclear weapons to Ukraine and pointing them at Russian and USian targets
If they actually do it it will be great news.
Wouldn't they just be shooting themselves in the foot here? Even with all the talk about decoupling and tariffs, the European and American economy are still heavily intertwined and a recession in the US will almost certainly spread to the EU.
Look at what happened in 2008, some wall street crooks made some stupid bets on mortgages and then the euro-zone got sent into a debt crisis.
Tak Washington state through New Mexico, and Maine Vermont. Do what you want with the rest.
Using the phrase “nuclear option” metaphorically is pretty dumb when we’re talking about a war where parties have threatened to use actual nuclear weapons.
its clickbait all the way down
Yaah, I hit some of the other stories on that site. It's a low-grade copy of some NewsCorp rag, that's got a right wing bent. Not impressed.
I was thinking that too.
Especially considering the EU has a major nuclear power in it. France can destroy anyone alone if they want
That too.
Id argue its still valid. Given that the people in charge (US perspective) dont give a shit about us beyond our productivity, $2tril of economic damage is probably exactly the same to them as being hit by a nuke. Honestly it might even hurt the parasite class more than a nuke because at least with a nuke they'd have pretense to go to war over it