https://youtu.be/F0_0WqUuh9E

Rewind

I actually think this is Zelensky manipulating Trump. From Ukraine’s point of view, this is win-win. They get continued military support on terms that Trump is likely to champion (“$15T in rare earth metals! Take that Jina!”). The rare earth deposits are mostly in Donetsk and Luhansk, so Trump has an incentive to support taking back that territory from Russia. And finally, this will mean post-war investment into rebuilding the bombed out industries in the East.

This was already agreed to last year, but Zelenskyy postponed the announcement specifically to appeal to Trump’s vanity. 

Honestly this is a good opportunity for Ukraine because trump is very easy to manipulate.

First:

Ukraine should say “absolutely!.. but we can’t do any of that until all Russia is gone from Ukrainian soil including Crimea. We wouldn’t want your Rare Earth metals to be attacked by Russians. Also we’ll need to ship them out of our port cities many of which Russia currently occupies in the sea of Azov and Crimea. So give us everything we need to clear out the Russians and we’ll get started on shipping you ore! Also, you want to make sure Ukraine is sovereign at the end of this and that Russia has no control over us because you know Putin won’t honor our deal on Rare Earths for the USA”

Second:

Rare Earth minerals aren’t uncommon, they’re just very sparsely spread over large areas of dirt or water. The hard, dirty, and expensive work of producing Rare Earth metals is the refinement. I’m not seeing any requirement here the Ukraine refines it. This means that Ukraine could fulfill the commitment to trump by shipping raw ore. The only think Ukraine will have to do is shovel dirt right out of the ground and put it in ships on the way to the USA. Any level of concentration would qualify (and again, they’re not rare, just not densely concentrated).

Third:

Much of the military aid Ukraine has received is loans of military gear. Ukraine knows this and is planning on paying this back over many decades. If Ukraine could offer shiploads of dirt as payment, they could get out from under the war debt far earlier than they planned.

Ukraine should absolutely take this deal. It secures their borders, kicks Russia out, keeps the country sovereign, and reduces their war debt. Oh, it will probably also piss off Putin, which is a nice side win.

“Favor for a favor — that’s how we do business. . .” Zelenskyy knows how to handle this.

And there it is. This is why Nvidia head met with Trump. Fuck this shit my god someone please tell me what the fuck I can do to stop this shit.

They should say “ok”, get the aid, win the war, then refuse to pay. Everyone would love that trumpian tactic “it’s just business, mate”

They should sell Hunter’s laptop to him instead. Or the definite proof of pizzagate. Or whatever else cheap bs will convince him.

Rare earths to begin with. There will be more demands.

We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars

I know that this is not even close to being the most egregiously wrong thing he has said, but no you aren’t. You have put in less than one hundred billion. If you had put in hundreds of billions (and if Europe had done likewise, though the EU has cleared a hundred billion) the war would be over

I believe that Putin has pushed and directly and indirectly supported Trump, to weaken the minority world (aka “the West”). This might actually backfire now. A autoritatian regime lead by Trump is much more a wild card than the USA was before, because he doesn’t follow a predictable pattern. At least thats how the situation seems to be to me. Maybe I am not seeing the big picture here.

He should agree to it, then back out after the war is ended claiming he never agreed to it, or whatever excuses Trump uses to never pay contractors

Looks like the tech bros and oil oligarchs are really getting their money’s worth. They bought this

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The funny thing is that a deal which brings foreign investment to Ukraine can be good for Ukraine even if the minerals are sold on terms very favorable to the USA. I wish Trump didn’t make it sound like extortion but who knows - maybe that’s what gets Republican voters on board.