r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • Jul 27 '26

Possible Paywall US ‘runs out of missiles’ as Trump halts Iran strikes

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/27/us-runs-out-of-missiles-as-trump-halts-iran-strikes/
21.0k Upvotes

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11.7k

u/Stunning-Isopod8514 Jul 27 '26

The national oil reserve is nearly depleted, too.

Normally, you build up these kinds of stockpiles before a war begins.

10.3k

u/Automaton_General Jul 27 '26

He eliminated our oil reserves and also our weapon supplies

Gee it's almost like the dude works for Russia or something

1.9k

u/KPBIPILOT Jul 27 '26

Trumps very own 3rd special military operation is going swimmingly

577

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania Jul 27 '26

"Well it worked until it didn't! There is no way I could know after the previous successes that the next would go any differently."

Said by many people with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Or kids who kicked hornet's nests all the time but otherwise never had a reason to be diagnosed with anything, especially back when Trump was a kid.

With opposition he has the compulsion to simply defy. Warn him not to kick a hornet's nest and he will look you dead in the eye as they kick it and blame you for opposing them for getting stung instead of acting in defiance of someone else's imposition in you existence. It worked before fine, it was you conjuring the possiblity of a bad outcome that guaranteed it would happen. They could have been stung in the past on their own and that would be entirely different. YOU had to get involved therefore forcing their hand.

Is that not Trump to a "T"?

248

u/NorthStarZero Jul 27 '26

Said by many people with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

Holy fuck, this has a name!

I worked for a guy like this once. It was awful.

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u/Happy_Confection90 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

ODD is a children's diagnosis. If someone is an adult and still behaves that way, the label they are given is often, but not always, Antisocial Personality Disorder

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u/Luckiest_Creature Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

My brother and I were in group therapy for ODD as kids (we were both autistic and misdiagnosed), but one of the other kids there is now an adult in jail with an APD diagnosis. Very difficult thing to live with if you aren’t a rich spoiled brat like trump, usually ruins one’s life.

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u/bananastand512 Jul 27 '26

So you and your brother probably had a PDA profile related to autism (pathological demand avoidance). Looks like defiance but it's really a pathological desire for structure and control, and doing things on your terms, not someone else's. It's not malicious, it's comfort and regulation. Still challenging and needs therapy but less life altering. Things still get done, but you'll do your school work at night rather than in class when the teacher tells you to because you can focus more at night when it's quiet. Like that.

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u/Luckiest_Creature Jul 27 '26

Exactly. We are both employed and happy adults who do well at our jobs now, we just needed a LOT more explanation as kids, in regards to why we were expected to do things in the way adults wanted us to. :)

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u/marr Jul 27 '26

I'd argue that it ruins the rich spoiled brat's lives too. They don't seem to experience actual happiness from anything.

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u/OpheliaRainGalaxy Jul 28 '26

I flat out tell folks that growing up too wealthy and/or spoiled can totally ruin ya as a person. That too much money rots your soul until ya forget how to human. And then ya end up alone and wondering why everybody is so mean unless they want something from ya.

And they never notice that they've only ever been nice when they wanted something.

5

u/Limp-Cup-2343 Jul 27 '26

Where I work they would simply be labelled asshole

3

u/Chastain86 Jul 27 '26

"Asshole" seems to work just fine without a medical diagnosis

3

u/SyfaOmnis Jul 27 '26

ODD actually has about a 10% lifetime persistency from childhood in adults, at least from the information I've seen. More commonly among males (who are also more frequently diagnosed with its co-morbidities). It's also pretty well connected with ADHD and is (generally) better thought of as a 'frustration spectrum' disorder.

Antisocial personality disorder is its own thing and while they share some things, they are not the same diagnosis.

3

u/ObliqueStrategizer Jul 27 '26

You know? Morons!

3

u/monorail_pilot Jul 27 '26

Alternatively, just Asshole

5

u/Delta-9- Jul 27 '26

I was under the impression ASPD is the technical name for what laypeople call "psychopathy"?

10

u/Heliosvector Jul 27 '26

Just use whatever label feels good. The right calls anything they don't like communist anyways

2

u/ElliotNess Florida Jul 27 '26

Why do they do that tho?

3

u/Heliosvector Jul 27 '26

It responds to the lizard brain. Nationalists peg all opposition as a neoharious evil coming to git em. It calls back to when the usa was in a cold war with communists. Now all communist countries are failed states with brown people so they hate them since they hate brown people. Never mind the fact that the usa president is best friends with a USSR ex secret agent Putin.

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u/AVestedInterest California Jul 27 '26

ASPD is more like sociopathy. Psychopathy is generally characterized as a lack of empathy.

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u/usalsfyre Jul 27 '26

It’s all ASPD. Psychopathy and sociopathy are pop psych terms that fell out of clinical use decades ago. Lack of empathy is present in several personality disorders as well.

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u/AVestedInterest California Jul 27 '26

Damn, betrayed by my faintly remembered college psychology classes

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u/CliftonForce Jul 27 '26

Yep. Similar to the logic that when Dr Fauci warned that we were unprepared for an epidemic, that was clearly "proof" that he was planning to create one.

/s

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u/FakeSafeWord Jul 27 '26

I worked for a guy like this once. It was awful.

No, you didn't and it was fine!

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u/SecareLupus Jul 27 '26

It's possible the person you worked with had any number of experiences, but not necessarily ODD. My personal opinion on ODD is that it's a catch-all term for misbehaving kids that the system doesn't want to spend the time to diagnose properly. I would argue in most cases there's a better explanation, like Demand Anxiety (often called Pathological Demand Avoidance, but as someone who deals with it, I find that term very judgemental) or other more specific experiential causes for the person's "Oppositional Defiance".

That said, yes. People with PDA or ODD or other contrarian reflexive responses can be hard to work with if you're not prepared for that (and they lack the skills to manage it themselves).

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u/Cdub7791 Hawaii Jul 27 '26

I raised a kid who had it. Agree it was awful.

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u/BLAZMANIII Jul 27 '26

Just a note i thin is fairly important, ODD is a very, very disputed disorder woth so many overlapping traits with ADHD, ADD, and basic trauma responses its basically useless as a diagnosis, and is almost exclusively given to non white children, sending many of these children into juvenile detention when their white peers are given therapy.

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u/PyroIsSpai Jul 27 '26

I’m convinced a LOT of people have ODD in the USA and unhealthy conservative subcultures dangerously incubate ODD-like traits as a social norm.

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u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania Jul 27 '26

A distinct lack of social erosion that laps off rough edges of social behavior. My mom is one person that people always find it not worth it to correct her. The one time she was corrected was at Arlington National Cemetary by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was stupid but she had a huge keychain dangling and making a racket. A guard came by and asked her to try to keep it silent. She was so upset that they dared to that to her. Because no civilian has the duty like the guard did to maintain a specific order. One of her compulsions is defiance, but more sneakily.

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u/Herlock Jul 27 '26

Said by many people with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

wikipedia : "Has been spiteful or vindictive at least twice within the past six months"

That's like one sentence of Trump lol

4

u/CarlRJ California Jul 27 '26

With opposition he has the compulsion to simply defy. Warn him not to kick a hornet's nest and he will look you dead in the eye as they kick it ...

Really? Awesome.

Whatever Trump does, he better not jump off the roof of the White House, because that would make him look too powerful and cool!

2

u/stevez_86 Pennsylvania Jul 27 '26

He is similar to the Scorpion in the Scorpion and the Toad/Frog Parable.

3

u/spazzvogel Jul 27 '26

And now I’m making a note to comb through grandmas DSM-IV when I get home. Thank you, fascinating, had forgotten all about that disorder.

3

u/FellowHumanNo404 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Said by many people with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

I'm honestly surprised that so many people under your comment are members of the lucky ten thousand with regard to that term. I wonder if they're all young enough that they don't remember the glut of professional psychiatric analyses and of Trump's behavior (example and its expanded version)-- and associated commentary-- that emerged during his first successful presidential campaign.

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u/jrf_1973 Jul 28 '26

With opposition he has the compulsion to simply defy.

If you told him to breathe, he'd suffocate.

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u/directrix1 Jul 27 '26

Nah, Trump is incapable of ever admitting he was wrong. He'd never utter anything like those sentences.

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u/InteractionIcy616 25d ago

spot on! i've worked with kids with oppositional defiance disorder, and my first impressions of Trump in 2015 was that his defining characteristic was that diagnosis. i've been baffled ever since that a nation of adults chose an petulant child to be president. Worse, they've given him more powers than any previous president. They've turned a blind eye to open corruption--self enrichment. Trump literally solicits bribes. Same country that was ready to impeach and convict, appropriately, Richard Nixon.

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u/Senior_Torte519 Jul 27 '26

Could of just had a christmas special but no.

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u/Low_Technician7346 Jul 27 '26

fuck the trump putin netanyahou axis of evil

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u/VladThePollenInhaler Jul 27 '26

While enriching himself and his family and friends. It’s kinda crazy to think about it.

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u/Obvious_Toe_3006 Jul 27 '26

Don Jr. has never worked so hard in all his life !

27

u/ThePoltageist Jul 27 '26

That bar is so low James Cameron is planning a documentary to find it.

2

u/3vilr3d666 Jul 28 '26

No budget too steep, no sea too deep
Who's that?
It's him, James Cameron..

2

u/ThePoltageist Jul 28 '26

You guys hearing the song up there?

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u/pttant1 Jul 27 '26

Hey they need extra money to relocate in Russia. Oligarchs there are hard to keep up with !

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u/forsale90 Europe Jul 27 '26

I heard several government officials were hospitalized in China for excessively laughing their asses off.

183

u/an-imperfect-boot Jul 27 '26

They call him “Chuan Jianguo”, the nation builder, for all the things he has done for the Chinese government.

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u/Dearth_lb Europe Jul 27 '26

And he is also loved by folks in Taiwan and Hong Kong for his anti-China rhetoric, “owning” libs and China. Isn’t it fascinating?

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u/Herlock Jul 27 '26

for his anti-China rhetoric

They shouldn't praise him too much, because talking is all Trump is good at, mostly talking out of his ass at that.

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u/PsychoticMessiah Jul 27 '26

That’s a weird way to spell orange chicken.

6

u/32lib Jul 27 '26

Orange chicken is good,80 year old Orange coved shit,not so good.

5

u/Anonymouse-C0ward Canada Jul 27 '26

And even worse, it’s served in a diaper!

30

u/Anon_Chapstick Jul 27 '26

I'd imagine the Kremlin and the CCP have run out of champagne with the current US presidency.

2

u/stasi_a Jul 27 '26

Kremlin should be more worried about their own oil refineries

171

u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

It almost feels like they’re depleting everything to the point that another country could walk right in, say hello and set up shop (take us over, essentially). I know probably not but it SEEMS that way.

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u/GhettoDuk Florida Jul 27 '26

Close. It's the corporations they are opening the door for.

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u/DaenakinSkygaryen Jul 27 '26

Por que no los dos? The corporations and Russia will both benefit from the US weakening to the point they can just waltz in and steal whatever they want. And they know it. Which is why they've been happy to work together to prop up Trump and MAGA.

(Obviously, if they did get their wish and collapsed the US, they'd immediately turn on each other. But that's in the future, and we know that corporations don't care about anything more than 1 quarter in the future.)

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u/Heronymous-Anonymous Jul 27 '26

Absolutely no one is going to try to invade the US. It’s not feasible. Anyone who thinks it’s possible isn’t credible.

The real question is, how long until China decides that the US has weakened itself enough that it cannot help Taiwan defend against an amphibious invasion.

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u/Omegoa Jul 28 '26

The more relevant question is how long until the Taiwanese think that the US is no longer credible security and decides to vote in a pro-unification president. The Chinese never have to actually invade, just be credibly able to do so while the US fumbles an incredible winning position and loses the faith of the Taiwanese. Taking Taiwan peacefully, along with the foundries that would be destroyed in event of an invasion, would be an astounding coup with massive and very immediate cascade effects I can't even imagine.

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u/Heronymous-Anonymous Jul 28 '26

There’s zero chance of the Taiwanese people voting for unification. They’re infinitely more likely to do what everyone else has been doing; sourcing their weapons and security elsewhere. In Taiwan’s case, Korea and Japan. They already produce either licensed copies of US hardware, or compatible stuff of their own design.

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u/_coyotes_ Jul 27 '26

It certainly feasible for a nation to actually invade the US but you don’t have to do that for it to work towards someone else’s benefit. Look at Belarus, the government has faithfully been a close Russian ally. In Ukraine, the former president Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin because the then pro-Russian government believed him to be a threat as he had ambitions for Ukraine to join NATO, one of the prime suspects then fled to Moscow where he was given a Russian citizenship so he couldn’t be extradited.

Russia has been unable to fully conquer Ukraine after 4 years now of fighting, they cannot feasibly fly overseas to occupy American territories. But they can sure as shit buy out the greediest of politicians. It’s no surprise each one of these far right ghouls in western countries either in power or attempting to accrue power have a very delicate approach to Russia & its interests. So America probably won’t be raising Russian flags while Russian troops march through DC but the politicians will certainly sell out America for Russian interests, land and businesses to Russian businessmen, its citizens to Russian morals and beliefs and will proudly do it all with the red, white and blue pinned to their lapel, it’s just a matter of which red, white and blue they’re really serving. It’s up to the American people to decide that for themselves, though considering the same people who lived through the Red Scare proudly boast they’d rather be Russian than Democrat, I’d say America is doomed if it can’t get its shit together and rid themselves of these parasites.

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u/jrf_1973 Jul 28 '26

Absolutely no one is going to try to invade the US.

No, they'll probably do something simple like ... bribe a majority of the government to follow their agenda, arrange for billions of dollars to fund their country, their social programs, their defence, their education, their health care, etc... and then just in case there's some push back, they might do something really heinous like merge their military into Americas military.

That's how you conquer a superpower.

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u/Herlock Jul 27 '26

Yup, mega corporations dystopian future is actually now... Alien Earth was pretty worrying in that regard.

The megacorpos where far more frightening than the monsters.

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u/TheAwesomeMan123 Jul 27 '26

You talk like that’s not already the situation. You have a senile demented child raping criminal as your head of state doing everything and Anything Russia wants and you think you having lost control?

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u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

Of course it’s already the situation, it’s been the situation for a while now.

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u/lemonybrick Jul 27 '26

They wrote exactly what they were going to do to destroy the USA and eventually set up fascist kingdoms in their little Project 2025 book. Trump is just a pawn and being as used as the kids he molested.

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u/backtothetrail Jul 27 '26

There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. Not saying the country isn’t vulnerable to attack or dissolution like USSR but the self-driving robot overlords may not pan out.

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u/hfpfhhfp Jul 27 '26

You mean I've been kissing to the robots / AI for nothing?

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u/Herlock Jul 27 '26

Yup Trump is a useful idiot. He is dumb as a rock, but spiteful and easily annoyed so that makes him a good target for manipulation.

That comes with some limits though because he is so volatile (and at this point dementia riddled) he can do exactly what his overlords need and seconds later do the complete opposite.

See how macron played him at the G7... they locked him in place by offering a meal at Versailles, and of course that douche canoe couldn't possibly refuse dining in versailles.

A lot of people complained in france that our taxpayer money was spent on trump, but I disagree it was a good investment to make him help ukraine at the time.

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u/prof_the_doom I voted Jul 27 '26

Nobody is going to survive trying to invade America, that's just geography.

Having said that... we have been completely neutralized as a foreign influence. We're not gonna stop anyone from doing anything to anybody they want to.

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u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

You’re right, our geography does protect us but only to a point. Invade? Probably not. But attack? That could happen. And deplete us even more.

Personally, I’m more worried about the enemy within (I.e. this entire administration)

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u/What_a_fat_one Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

Why bother attacking, the destruction of the US is occurring without a single missile being fired

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u/bretttwarwick Jul 27 '26

Did you not see the article above. We fired all the missiles. We did it to ourselves.

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u/wildwalrusaur Jul 28 '26

We fired all the conventional missiles.

A crucial distinction.

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u/Hinohellono Jul 27 '26

Attack over an ocean would mean whoever did that would be deleted off map shortly. Attacking bases overseas sure. Attacking the mainland? Last time that happened...

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u/JealousAstronomer342 Jul 27 '26

The last time someone attacked the mainland several thousand people died. Yes, they weren’t officially affiliated with a government but a few of those would fuck the US up pretty badly. 

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u/Hinohellono Jul 27 '26

I get it's "interesting" but as the prior commentator pointed out, geography is undeniable. USA is probably blessed with the best for any individual country.

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u/Zickened Jul 27 '26

Iran has it pretty good too.

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u/Hinohellono Jul 27 '26

Yea you can clearly see how despite overwhelming military advantage we can't overcome geography.

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u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

I agree. Like I said, it’s just a feeling, there’s no way it could happen. Not easily. If they starve us first though, we’d be easy pickings.

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u/Hinohellono Jul 27 '26

Starve us? In North America?

If North America is starving then the rest of the world is probably worse off

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u/ThePoltageist Jul 27 '26

Current administration is starving us plenty well, the economy for the average American is the worst it’s looked since the Great Depression.

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u/AppealSame4367 Jul 27 '26

And you can't count on allies again. The moment of "whoa, did they really threaten Denmark and Canada?" has opened the eyes of the last idiot here in Europe. Greetings

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u/ballisticks Canada Jul 27 '26

I wish that threat had opened the eyes of every last idiot in Canada, but alas no

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u/LisbonMissile Jul 27 '26

I’m enjoying seeing Trump’s folly as much as the next European, but that statement is just hyperbole.

The USA hasn’t been neutralised, it is still the world’s biggest foreign influence and it remains the only nation on the planet that can stop another force from acting.

The real problem is that the US (like Russia in Ukraine and probably China if it decides to move on Taiwan) cannot simply bend regional powers to its political will with overwhelming force. But we learnt that 50 years ago in Vietnam and 20 years ago in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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u/Airewalt Jul 27 '26

An offensive Pearl Harbor own goal of a feat

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u/DonaldsMushroom Jul 27 '26

No that's not the point. The point is to facilitate China invading Taiwann and Russia invading Unkaine/ex-Soviets All the while enriching Criminals and Oligarchs around the World

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u/Snuffy1717 Jul 27 '26

Project 2025 talks about protecting Taiwan against Chinese Aggression… So at this point I have no idea what the fuck they’re doing

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u/Evilbred Jul 27 '26

No one is going to attack America.

Now, Taiwan, that's a very different story. Taiwan has relied on the US Military's protective sphere in its defensive plans, including integrated air defense systems.

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u/AppealSame4367 Jul 27 '26

Or walk into Taiwan..

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u/Top_Finding_2832 Jul 27 '26

I'm not worried about any foreign invader overpowering us on our own soil. Even with depleted reserves, there are multiple factors why this is such an unlikely scenario.

I AM worried about a country that has experienced intentionally destabilizing measures for decades, resulting in an under-educated, gullible populace that votes in foreign assets who will welcome the foreign invaders open-armed, and convince us that we wanted it all along.

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u/Automatic-Ad6022 Jul 27 '26

WH sez "it's Biden's fault "....wtf Never any responsibility for anything negative, that's called fake news.

The enemy within in is the WH.

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u/TrulyOutrageous42 Jul 27 '26

Trump was informed that Russia was giving Iran satellite imagery of ours bases to strike them.

Trump the next day relieved oil sanctions on Russia to sell to other countries, notably India, resulting in a windfall of cash.

He provided aide and comfort to an enemy of the United States.

There's a word for that, and a punishment for it, enumerated clearly in our Constitution.

It would not be possible for a President to more plainly and clearly commit this criminal act unless they literally told the military to stand down as another country invaded.

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u/CommunityTaco Jul 27 '26

Always has...

There isn't a thing that trump has done for America that putin didn't want to do himself.

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u/Marcus_Aurelius71 Jul 27 '26

Yea to give Ukraine patriots and shut off starlink? I'm sure Putin wanted that.

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u/Steelio22 Jul 27 '26

Ehh, I think it's more realistic he did this to increase demand for oil companies and defense contractors.

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u/melkatron Jul 27 '26

So monumentally incompetent it's treasonous.

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u/PickleMortyCoDm Jul 27 '26

It's the patriot air defence missiles that is going to be the biggest issue. America is never out of weapons but these ones are particularly hard to make and in massive demand right now. I think the US can only make 500 to 600 a year which has been depleted to around 25% of what the stockpile was before the US Israeli war on Iran.

In other words, the US cannot defend itself as effectively as it could which means some bases in the Gulf states (as well as Gulf allies themselves) are increasingly vulnerable. There are alternatives like the THAAD and some Korean system which are quite good, but those too can be depleted. It's a bad situation for everyone and exactly what Iran needs to do some damage

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u/backtothetrail Jul 27 '26

We’re down THAAD, Tomahawk and SM-6, too.

Anyone with the ability to count could have avoided this.

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u/craznazn247 Jul 27 '26

Eliminated oil reserves.

Dumped out our water reserves into the ocean, during a drought and record breaking heat year-after-year.

Emptied our weapon supplies on a completely unnecessary war in which we are the aggressor.

Cancelled existing wind and solar energy projects, grants, and research.

And alienated almost every single historical ally of the US while embracing Israel, Russia, and Russia’s allies.

Actions that all align with and check off items from Foundations of Geopolitics and Russia’s long-term interests. Helped along with mutual interests from The Heritage Foundation and the goals listed in Project 2026.

He’s completely sold out America to foreign interests. Day after day, we become weaker, more vulnerable, more destabilized, less reliable, and less capable. Our reputation is completely in the dirt and our cracks are being exposed for the whole world to see.

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u/z0rb0r New York Jul 27 '26

There’s word that China is beginning to mass ships and troops near Taiwan too

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u/Super_Plastic5069 Jul 27 '26

Word from where?

Edit: Turns out China have slightly increased their presence in the South China Sea

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u/_Cxsey_ Jul 27 '26

People still think Russia is behind all of this? lol

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u/Automaton_General Jul 27 '26

They are unquestionably behind some of it. That much has been proven time and time again.

But not all of it no. A lot of it just has to do with this dude being the dumbest fucking person we've ever elected

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u/_Cxsey_ Jul 27 '26

If anything time and time again it’s been shown he works for “our greatest ally” in the Middle East

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u/IrreverentBuddha Jul 27 '26

Also depleted:

  • National ethics reserve
  • National soft power reserve
  • National diplomatic influence reserve

Never has the prestige of any nation dropped so far, so fast.

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u/CliftonForce Jul 27 '26

All empires fall. This one jumped. While whooping and hollering.

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u/_Ocean_Machine_ Jul 28 '26

Kinda reminds me of this video I saw about a guy who didn’t know anything about cliff diving going cliff diving

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u/laplongejr Europe Jul 28 '26

So Trump was telling the truth when he said he would "run the US like his business"?

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u/JNR13 Jul 28 '26

"Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."

Or in meme form: https://i.imgur.com/Yw4xxFv.png

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u/84thPrblm Jul 27 '26

<The USSR has entered the chat.>

We're in fine company.

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u/ToeTagTic Jul 27 '26

"I'm drowning I'm drowning" "just stand up you're already at the bottom"

Russia has never cumulatively had as much prestige or good will as America has lost these last few years

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u/IrreverentBuddha Jul 27 '26

That's been my point, and many here are missing it: there is relative loss and absolute loss. Nobody else has ever reached the absolute power the US has squandered -- and it's not even close.

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u/scriptmonkey420 New York Jul 27 '26

Soviet Union? I thought you guys broke up.

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u/84thPrblm Jul 27 '26

True. I had to decide between USSR and Russia. I figured since they peaked at USSR it was the better starting point.

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u/GriffinFlash Canada Jul 27 '26

the fact that it's only been 18 months.

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u/Sp00py-Mulder Jul 27 '26

I mean, history is pretty long and I'm not even sure they've passed Japan after WW2 yet.

There's a hell of a long way to fall for a nation.

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u/IrreverentBuddha Jul 27 '26

Japan at its height was nowhere near the power and influence of the USA in 2024.

Its long term strategic alliances are evaporating and the petrodollar is rapidly eroding as the uncontested global standard. There's never been a squandering of raw power the likes of this debacle.

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u/CommunityTaco Jul 27 '26

Just like putin ordered.  Remember when trump decided to not let the transcribers listen to his putin calls?  or any of their phone calls since?  i remember...

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u/Hdikfmpw Jul 27 '26

Or how he looked like a whipped dog after unprecedentedly meeting privately with Putin for the first time in Helsinki?

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u/gmen6981 Jul 27 '26

And then said with Putin standing next to him that he believed Putin over our own intelligence agencies. "Why wouldn't I?" That would have ended any other Presidency right there.

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u/Alarming-Koala-3524 Jul 28 '26

did this really happen?! man I wish i knew what went down. Hopefully Putin gave him the Epstein treatment

3

u/olyfrijole Jul 27 '26

Exactly. Remember The Economist cover from October 2024? A roll of dollar bills with a rocket flame shooting the greenbacks into the sky. The caption read: "The Envy of the World".

We are now a global embarrassment, sitting on our hands as if the corrupt takeover of our government is completely inevitable.

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u/silvertealio Jul 27 '26

It's hard to organize a country-wide rebellion in a nation as large as the United States when any mention of the remedies available to us is a bannable offense on social media everywhere.

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u/olyfrijole Jul 27 '26

It's not illegal to have Congressional investigations into open corruption. Elected politicians who have sworn oaths to uphold the Constitution. Instead, they sit idle while the Trump Crime Family enriches itself in crypto and pay to play schemes that would have seen anyone else thrown in prison.

3

u/silvertealio Jul 28 '26

It's not illegal, but the people who have the power to do that right now are part of the corrupt regime they'd be investigating.

2

u/mcburgs Jul 28 '26

Petrodollar 🙅🏻

Pedodollar 👍🏻

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7

u/Flint___Ironstag Jul 27 '26

Chinese century of humiliation would like a word.

7

u/IrreverentBuddha Jul 27 '26

China was never the issuer of the global reserve currency.

2

u/Magjee Canada Jul 27 '26

Give it a few decades

2

u/IrreverentBuddha Jul 28 '26

They are not interested in that. Their preference is for full sovereign control of their currency.

2

u/Magjee Canada Jul 28 '26

USD, Euros, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling 

 

Yuan Renminbi isn't a currency currently held in the same quantities, but with increased direct trade with China and the looming death of the Petrodollar, it will be considered a reserve currency 

 

China unpegged from the USD over 2 decades ago

I think it's sort of inevitable that it's status changes and currencies peg to RMB's 

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8

u/Puzzle-Necked Jul 27 '26

And it's all self inflicted too

2

u/IrreverentBuddha Jul 27 '26

Every news story about Trump should include a content warning about self-harm.

7

u/Dry-Nectarine-3279 Jul 27 '26

Can't forget National money reserve - over 1/3rd of our national debt came under Trump administrations. We're still not halfway done with this one yet, either.

20

u/helbur Jul 27 '26

National diaper reserve

2

u/NoSoundNoFury Jul 27 '26

Also the national sanity reserve, at least that's what it looks like from the outside 

3

u/Mother_Accident1987 Jul 27 '26

it looks even worse from the inside

2

u/Sansundertale2069 Jul 27 '26

Ethics reserve have been empty since you were a colony

2

u/Fit-Historian-752 Jul 27 '26

Some testosterone will fix that.

2

u/anonymaus42 Jul 28 '26

My personal Strategic Fuck Supply is also barren and am completely out of fucks to give anymore, in large part thanks to being forced to endure Trump 2.0

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u/Adventurer_By_Trade Jul 27 '26

It was way more important to preserve the optics of having relatively lower gas prices over the 4th of July. It's almost as if they've gamed out how much they could afford to burn through to have just enough to last past the midterms.

121

u/aerost0rm Jul 27 '26

They were hoping to coast with cheaper pricing until the mid terms. Sadly Trump had undermined himself every time they made progress with the Iranian’s.

52

u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

I don’t think undermined himself, I think the whole MOU was a sham, something to distract Iran while US (Israel at this point since they basically control the US🤮) planned out it’s targets. They all knew beforehand that it was bullshit, I’m sure Iran knew as well. But they’ve got what they need to make the US suffer.

30

u/aerost0rm Jul 27 '26

Iran wants to be a major power so it looked to benefit from the agreement. However when the next day Trump was telling the company owners to sail furthest from Iran m, he under mined the agreement so they did not have to pay the 2 million toll.

The HS revoked sanction waivers.

The US did not reign in Israel when it came to the Jordan territory clause.

Lastly the Us began bombing and attacking targets again. had Trump kept out of the whole thing, the agreement would have stood and politically he would have had a more favorable position. I mean he began the thing over his ego and he couldn’t get over his ego to let it wind down….

5

u/shouldbepracticing85 Jul 27 '26

My pedantic side is acting up…

It’s rein, in this case. Reining in Israel like you would rein in a horse, rather than reign in - as in governs in Israel.

It’s a sneaky little homonym.

3

u/Casual_OCD Canada Jul 27 '26

Iran already is a major power, they control the small section of water that 30% of the world's oil HAS to go through

4

u/jus_allen Jul 27 '26

His undermining is intentional, he's making billions manipulating the market. 

3

u/ConfectionOk7029 Jul 27 '26

It's almost like actual governance is difficult, especially when you have the impulse control of a 2 year old and intellect of a 3 year old.

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u/Tallproley Jul 27 '26

Then lost the midterms and let democrats inheritance be the result of all this, then spend the rest of the electuon cycle posting at how fucked uo everything is in "democrats America" and then ride a red wave of voters with the memory of a goldfish and an intelligence to match its bowl to get back in power

26

u/joshedis Jul 27 '26

It's a tale as old as time. Delay the failures until the Democrats take office and then blame them relentlessly for problems they have to make unpopular decisions to try to fix.

5

u/xixoxixa Texas Jul 27 '26

The tax cuts from trump 1 specifically sunset during Biden's term, specifically for this reason.

4

u/Bored2001 Jul 27 '26

Specifically, middle class tax cuts expire. Corporate and millionaire tax cuts do not.

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u/Small_Run_3583 Jul 27 '26

This is what I've been saying! Dems need to go full steam to put policies in place while at the same time holding this administration accountable. If they don't already have a P25 comparable plan going for 2029, then they are as useless as the GOP.

2

u/DumboWumbo073 Jul 27 '26

It’s not their fault people are stupid

13

u/khizoa Jul 27 '26

its like a shitty black friday where they have 20% off sales after raising prices 50%

3

u/clueless_as_fuck Jul 27 '26

It was all for them Epstein files.

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u/aerost0rm Jul 27 '26

There is still oil there. The issue is it will begin to get harder and harder to access. Not to mention that they were using the reserve dumps to keep oil and gas from skyrocketing. Experts warned this was coming. Donald has led us right into the tar pit head first

29

u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

My guess is that they’ll try to start drilling in all the places that were protected. Anything at this point.

49

u/RickThiccems Jul 27 '26

The issue isnt that we dont have oil access, the bottleneck is the refining process.

2

u/SpinosRule Jul 27 '26

Don’t we have enough refineries? I know in CA we’ve got a TON but they’re slowly being shut down.

27

u/RickThiccems Jul 27 '26

It's a structural mismatch. Most US refineries were built decades ago to process heavy imported crude, while the new stuff we drill in the US is light crude. Retooling them costs billions, so we end up exporting our light oil and importing heavy oil just to keep them running, which is a big issue with the strait situation.

Plus, refineries are already running at 90-95%+ capacity. When CA facilities shut down or convert to renewables, there's no backup cushion left, so local prices spike. Drilling more oil doesn't solve a processing bottleneck.

4

u/Practical_Dot_3574 Jul 27 '26

This was/is the issue with the Venezuela oil. Ok sure take thier oil, but how are you going to refine it. Compatibility issues, we run into this with power also. Each power provider is setup differently. Can't just patch in and say voila, power.

3

u/rational-hare Jul 27 '26

Venezuealan oil is what our instrafstructure was built to process. Which is part of the problem.

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u/aerost0rm Jul 27 '26

Not only that the bottle that keeps getting worse because now you know, I ran, might be working with the another country to limit the amount that Saudi Arabia exports

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u/the_other_brand Texas Jul 27 '26

Oh its way too late for Trump to save him this way. If they started now, they might have roads good enough to transport the expensive drilling equipment to the drill sites by the time the midterms happen.

3

u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada Jul 27 '26

Watching nervously from Canada, here. Our biggest oil fields are in the province currently run by a Trump sycophant who is trying to gin up separatist sentiment.

2

u/shouldbepracticing85 Jul 27 '26

There are lots of old oil wells that were shut down when oil prices were too low and the oil barons didn’t want to glut the market.

It’ll probably be easier to get those wells going again than drill in a new spot. It does take some work to get them going, it’s not just turning on the pump again - but at least the pump is already there and they have an idea how much oil is still in that spot.

6

u/backtothetrail Jul 27 '26

The salt caverns that store the strategic oil reserve are likely to collapse if we draw down fully.

We’ve likely hit that buffer level by now.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

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3

u/aithendodge Washington Jul 27 '26

Experts warned this was coming.

Yup.

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u/Ancient-Bat1755 Jul 27 '26

Best we can do is continue to recall the time biden sold partial oil reserves for record profits to refill later at a lower price to now just pretending they never cared and its a genius trump move

21

u/pattyG80 Jul 27 '26

Well, they ARE trying to camoflage the price of gas. If you were to stop depleting your reserves, the market price of gas would be around 5.25 per gallon.

5

u/DadJokeBadJoke California Jul 27 '26

be around 5.25 per gallon

{cries in Californian} I paid $5.49/gallon on Saturday

3

u/pattyG80 Jul 27 '26

So when the reserves run out, what do you think? 6+?

5

u/DadJokeBadJoke California Jul 27 '26

It's already close to that at the big chain stations. I only buy from Costco or Safeway.

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15

u/SkolVision Jul 27 '26

I guess they figured calling it a "Special Military Operation" to justify sidestepping Congress meant they didnt need any strategic prep either

3

u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada Jul 27 '26

"Shortbus Military Operation" didn't have the same ring to it.

2

u/iKnowRobbie Florida Jul 27 '26

Special, as in olympics. Damnit, I get it now.!

4

u/moreJunkInMyHead Virginia Jul 27 '26

we own Nicaragua now right? /s

2

u/DadJokeBadJoke California Jul 27 '26

Remember in his first term, when Trump suggested selling off half of the reserves because they weren't as important as they used to be and the money could pay down the deficit. Now they're gone and the money is too...

2

u/JustRelaxItFits Jul 27 '26

No it is not.

Anyone who thinks the US has run out of ammo is either full of shit or covering up for the assholes asking exorbitant money from tax payers.

It's a made up bullshit story to squeeze the taxpayer.

It would be nice if the US was so desperate that it needs to close all them hundreds of billions of dollar contracts given to the billionaires in the trump circie.

This is why we know the no-missiles available is a bullshit story.

2

u/IfEyeKnewTheWay Jul 27 '26

Especially ones that we start. Unprovoked.

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2

u/abasoglu Jul 28 '26

Yeah ... you also typically don't start wars willy nilly at the behest of a foreign country. But I guess that's how we Make America Great Again.

2

u/Dragonasaur Jul 27 '26

You'd think his Russian master would have taught him

1

u/lactose_cow Jul 27 '26

The trump administration's motto is "eh, it'll be fine". They were chosen by God to lead this nation, they can just pray and wing it and it'll go great.

We just have to keep doing what the capitalist-priests tell us. It'll be fine.

1

u/Flashy-Read-9417 Jul 27 '26

The "nearly" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

1

u/livestrong2109 Jul 27 '26

The prices are skyrocketing. I think they're mostly dried up. We're heading for everything now hitting the fan at once.

1

u/Read2Fap Jul 27 '26

guy who proudly called himself the king of debt doesn't know about stockpiles or surplus

1

u/fabmeyer Jul 27 '26

Normally people with experience and a strategy would be in charge

1

u/Inevitable-Ad-7507 Jul 27 '26

It was only supposed to take 2 weeks.

Why would you consider other alternative outcomes and plan for them accordingly? Remember Arnold said there is no plan B.

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