Defense stocks drop after Trump says Pentagon spending could be halved
KEY POINTS
- Defense stocks dropped sharply Thursday afternoon after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could massively cut defense spending.
- Trump has sent mixed messages on military spending throughout his 2024 campaign and in the early days of his presidency.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/13/defense-stocks-drop-after-trump-says-defense-spending-could-be-halved.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world614
Comments140
Who's to bet a load of shares get bought up, then suddenly this announcement is rescinded?
Playing the market based on the insanity dripping out of this guy daily, not a bad plan. If only there was some actual rhyme and reason to what he does.
You give Trump's dementia-addled ramblings far too much credit.
I was already going hard on AI stock, then day of inauguration when he sent the clear message of where tech companies stand in running this country I dumped ALL investment money into AI stock. If I have to live in this hellscape I better at least get to retire in it.
My brother, have you heard about the benefits of diversification? If you want to retire at all, don't put all your eggs in one basket.
If I invested in eggs I wouldn't be in this mess!
Everybody was panic buying ! Those stocks were fast as lightning!
In fact the buying was a little bit frightening.
But AI had expert timing.
Everybody was kung fu fighting.
dude, if you don't have anything to contribute just don't type
Dude... WHOOOSH!
No I got it, the song.
The thing is the first two posters changed the lyrics to fit the topic.
You just typed the lyrics to the actual song.
I bought lockheed martin call options after the way the steel markets rebounded
Edit: just checked volume on LMT. 2.4M today vs an average of 1.35M. Yeeeeeeah. Lot more buyers than usual today
Yay for incredibly immoral investments. It's disgusting how stock trading has been gamified and divorced from what it actually is, owning and supporting a company.
Since the entire thing is contingent on China and Russia agreeing to half their defence budget too, the only thing to bet on is when it will be rescinded.
Work it baby, work it. Insider trading on steroids, or rather Adderall.
He wants to annex Canada with half the war machine funding?
He is literally a fucking moron.
Seems like the strategy is for us Canadians to feel so sorry enough with the state of affairs over there, that we'd join the states out of sympathy. Nice try.
Even Canada isn't that sorry.
No, he wants to annex Canada, Greenland, Gaza, and Panama.
Probably Ukraine too. Let's just take over the planet and spread our
terrordemocracy all over the world /sAnd then she'll be surprised when they fight back.
Invasion of Canada doesn't need much military. It's just a fact.
Lemme guess, it would only be a 3 day special military operation? 🙄
Where have I heard this before?... I'm sure I've heard that before. Hmm, can't think of where tho. Starts with an R I think, leaders name starts with a P, but gosh darn it i just can't think of it. Oh well.
Rwanda and their president Paul Kagame?
No, I dont think so. Good guess tho. I'll think of it later I'm sure.
I think you need to read about what the Canadian military did in WW1 and why that is one of the reasons the Geneva Conventions exist.
Maybe it's best not to piss off Canada.
Crippling Canada’s military would be relatively easy. Holding the country would be absolutely impossible. It’s enormous geographically and occupation requires around 20 to 25 soldiers per thousand residents.
We would have to dedicate a cool million soldiers for the 40 million residents of Canada. The US had only 450k-ish army members in 2023, so that would be difficult.
Not to mention triggering Article 5 for the rest of NATO and shattering every defense agreement at once. You know, Putin's wet dream.
If there's going to be a world war, I'd prefer to not be on the side of Russia and China.
On the side of China? Their side is is sitting it all out and letting the U.S. and Russia devour themselves while picking up all the trade deals, currency holdings and eventually all the economical losses that will make it the strongest economy I'm the world by far. What do they have to do? Keep giving a nudge here or there, and watching egomaniacs devour their fellow citizens and the citizens eventually fight back to regain their freedoms. China wins every time Trump opens his mouth. But I don't feel they are on the side at all, just happily enjoying the little puppeting they need to do.
The US is basically China now. Xi remains in power because he convinced the Chinese people that China needs a strong man to run the economy and protect them from the evil foreigners. Trump has done the same. They're both corporate socialist countries now.
There is one big difference and no, China is not "sitting things out." A lot of the brouhaha over Greenland stems from China trying to use soft power to gain influence there. As they've done in Panama. Soft power means spending money and Trump's too simple minded to understand the concept of spending money to gain influence. So US soft power doesn't exist anymore which is why Trump can only make threats. It's the only lever he has because he doesn't know anything about the other levers. Of course his threats only further destroys US soft power, but Trump (along with most Americans) simply can't understand the concept so they see that as good thing. Hell they're trying to shut down USAID entirely, should be an indication they don't understand it at all.
China very much understands soft power and is using it everywhere. So that's what we have to look forward to... Chinese soft power being met with threats from Donald Trump.
You guys are so enamoured with Nazis you forget Vietnam.
Previous losers willing to kill millions for a win.
And Afghanistan. Which definitely happened during their lifetime.
Didn't they and Britain burn down the white house in the war of 1812? They seemed pretty fierce in WWII. As an American, I suggest we not fuck around, lest we find out. I'm much happier with Canada as ally, thank you very much. From wikipedia:
Found Putin's fedi account. 3 days to Ottawa, eh? Will work just like the last one, eh?
Pffft, like we'd believe that Ottawa is the capital of Canada. On to Toronto!
An occupation will. And the US has an extremely bad track record with occupations. That's just a fact.
You go on counting troops and getting boners when warplanes fly over sports arenas, while Canadians are figuring out how many strategic targets in the US are within drone range. This wouldn't be an overseas war where you just need to tell someone in uniform some bullshit "thank you for your service" remark and that would be your only exposure to it. It would be a guerilla war on the North American continent, and your dear leader is gutting the FBI's counter intelligence capabilities.
We would probably surrender and then work diplomatically to regain independence or some other-outcome that would be better than blowing our neighbours up.
What do you mean we? We literally cannot cede to a foreign power without a unanimous vote, which will never happen. You desperately need to read our charter of
rights and freedoms, if you actually are Canadian.E: see below for where it actually came from, I'm a wee bit daft.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms itself does not mention a requirement for unanimous consent. However, the Constitution Act, 1982, in Section 41, outlines the "unanimity formula," which requires unanimous consent from all provinces and both Houses of Parliament for constitutional amendments related to specific matters, such as changes to the office of the Monarch, the composition of the Supreme Court, or the amendment process itself[3][4].
Citations: [1] Unanimous Consent - House of Commons Procedure and Practice ... https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure-book-livre/en/document?sbdid=37461d8b-10dc-48a4-99a8-8a843ba16e8a&sbpid=72cb21d4-6a4c-4343-a388-496b5b293b21 [2] Unanimous Consent - The Process of Debate - House of Commons https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure/procedure-and-practice-3/ch_12_5-e.html [3] Amendments to the Constitution of Canada - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amendments_to_the_Constitution_of_Canada [4] THE CONSTITUTION ACTS 1867 to 1982 - Laws.justice.gc.ca https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-13.html [5] Amending Formula - Centre for Constitutional Studies https://www.constitutionalstudies.ca/2019/07/amending-formula/ [6] Charterpedia - Section 1 – Reasonable limits - Department of Justice https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art1.html [7] Guide to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms - Canada.ca https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/how-rights-protected/guide-canadian-charter-rights-freedoms.html [8] The Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter - Library of Parliament https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201817E
Damn I'm blind huh. Thank you for the correction.
Yes please cut defense spending in half.
Twice.
So... a quarter of the original left?
Yeah then do it again!
Do it infinite times!
Whelp, he's toast. The last Prez to threaten that got domed while visiting Texas.
Bush threatened that. Then 9/11 happened.
Literally was listening to NPR on the way to work that day and Rumsfield was on talking about making cuts to the military.
Here's hoping 🤞
Came in to say the exact same thing.
Spot on. Johnson got the message and the 12 years were spent in SE Asia. In this case, the AI sector, especially Palantir Technologies, will be just as pissed off.
Wow, they tanked *checks notes* 1.6% and 3.6%. Woooow
They probably shorted them first
I'm guessing this is all just a ploy to make Lockheed, Northrup, and Raytheon kiss the ring.
Next week, all the classified work will be contracted to them for a steal of only thrice the price, but only once they've publicly kissed his ass enough.
Lockheed, Northrup and Raytheon would learn Farsi in a blink if it gave them a better bottom line
I don't like it when I agree with the general notion of something Trump says or does. Makes me feel dirty.
Broken clocks. If its any consolation he could be, variously-
3 is my guess. Look at tiktok
Wait until you see how i gets halved. Im willing to bet they axe the VA, any scholastic programs, ROTC et al as most policies are about destroying America.
Thats the magic of trump though, when he's vague about things he can sometimes spin them as something agreeable. My guess is he'll keep the regime change bullshit and nix stuff like burn pit procedures, ukraine support, and veterans benefits
He'll direct the savings to creating a new internal police force.
Putler told Trump to disarm the US lol.
Would be a good thing if it would actually happen but we all know it won't. Happy to be proven wrong however
The military is a jobs program. It’s paying for a ton of education and scientific research too. The first thing to go is going to be the scholarships not the guns.
Would it be a good thing? A lot of our power comes from military spending
We spend more on our military than the next 9 countries combined not including our dark operations that we can't account for in our budget already.
We could cut our military in half and still be the best funded military in the world.
That problem isn't other nations, it's the US and the military industrial complex
Have you ever read the unclassified annual threat assessment? There is an official report the intelligence comminity puts out every year detailing what other nations are doing around the world. And that's just what theyre allowed to tell us.
Ive read it, and if you look at what they detail out for chinas militarzation moderniation plans, theres not many reasons theyre doing what theyre doing unless to compete with the USA. Not to mention, chinas going faster than what originally was thought, and theyre becoming less reliant on other nations to do it. Thats just 1 nation. The usa has stuck its nose in too many peoples business that if they stop the arms race, there could be a lot of nations coming knocking. Weve painted ourselves into a corner (or at least have the perception of it).
Edit: all that said, theres definitely ways to be more fiscally responsible with our military spending... just look at the f35 or the sentinel program
The poor F35. Another example of why you don't build planes by committee.
But we also sell a lot of that military equipment to allies, making everyone stronger and recouping some of that spending at the same time.
A quick search shows about $300b in sales last year with a spending budget about $800b. Of course, that depends on whether Ukraine survives to be able to repay its debt. But even if it can't, all the military spending goes to US owned companies or citizens (our soldiers) which circulates in the domestic economy.
And sell a lot of equipment to genocide perpetrators.
Good news, we're about to have a lot less allies!
Considering how we've used that power in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam? Yes, its a good thing.
But if the alt is china, of course the usa is a better option.
And it's due you lose some
If he actually tried to follow through, there would actually probably be a military coup.
In America.
If he actually halves Pentagon Spending, that would be..... the first good deed he's ever done.
I can see him doing away with seasonal clock shifts by accident at some point.
He never will. He sent a message for weapon manufacturer CEOs to chip in, and off course they will gladlyl buy him just like how silicon techies did
Exactly, this is just fishing for a bribe, just like the tariffs. Bribe Trump enough and your program or industry will get a loop hole or passed over for 6 months or whatever.
Well, couldn't the M1 Abrams be replaced with cheaper Tesla cybertrucks?
"Sir, half of our swastitanks have burned to the ground."
"Who attacked them?"
"Attacked?"
It just rained sir.
Are you kidding .... who the hell believes anything this idiot says any more. If any one does, then you are just as dumb or dumber than this orange cheeseball.
He is the master of deception, lies and misdirection .... he'll say one thing, everyone panics and runs around scared or angry and while they panic, he goes behind everyone to pull off some cheesy lame ass scam that would have been easy to stop otherwise but he gets away with it because everyone is preoccupied.
The stocks will jump up and down at his every whim and because he is the one directing the show, he'll profit by betting on when the fall occurs and when the rise returns. He'll skim off everyone's wealth over and over again until we're all bled dry.
nooooo!! my lockheed shares!!!
It doesn't need to be halved. They just need to figure out where a large portion of the money goes, since they can't seem to account for it.
Please keep fucking with the defense contractors, surely they won't take any drastic measures against you
There was a post just a day or so ago that was basically saying it was time to buy Raytheon:D
Based???!
I had the “wait, a good thing?” reaction too.
But thinking about potential underlying motivations, it makes complete sense that the compromised traitor holding the reins would want to weaken the military at the same time as destroying the government.
Or maybe it isn’t to help other dictators, and he just wants the opportunity to weed out more people who are loyal to the constitution.
This may signal he is getting pushback from the military which is a very good thing. If he is serious about Canada and Greenland he will need a strong military. It makes no sense to start cutting the budget now.
Refusing unlawful orders is always cool and moral.
My mind came up with a terrible what-if today:
What if Musky is becomes the first trillionaire in the next year or two and then deploys a Tesla-bot army?
For his own sake, he should hope that his bot army performs better than his swastikars.
Full autopilot* killbots
In the next few years the currency that Musk has trillions of won't be worth the paper it's printed on.
I'm thinking it's more for bunker bots that he provides for all the other rich fucks, they all know the world is dead and the biggest issue the rich fucks have is loyal security when it's bunker down time so it's going to be some AI gun turret shit
Oh man, a showdown at the border: Tesla-Bot vs Mecha-Gosling!
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
well, tesla already was given a $400 million contract for armored teslas, so...
They're going to 25 him if he goes close to do it.
More than this, the idea that the US will reduce defense spending at the same time as others are increasing it is laughable. The whole "NATO has to start pulling it's weight" thing will result in US military power diminishing vs the rest of the world and will result in more US military spending in the long term, not less.
it's almost as if an enemy agent is in the big chair
And another enemy agent is working right alongside him, hollowing out entire departments and agencies.
Oh no, that would be a tragedy.../s
Been saying it, dude is a gene stealers cultist trying to weaken the country.
Not in this case, surprisingly
The cutting the defense budget in half or an alien asset. Cause this timeline well off the rails.
Sure, piss off the industrial war machine. WCGW?
you think hes not gonna just send nukes and sharpie 51 over it on the map?
holy shit the stopped clock is on the correct time. too bad it wont actually happen
Well, even if defense spending were slashed, the current oligarchy is gutting health, education, environment, and occupational programs, so those "savings" won't be reallocated to anything actually beneficial to society. We'll be lucky if that money even stays in the country. We're basically witnessing an estate sale for a deceased America.
Realistically speaking... Is anything gonna happen?
Fuckers are just gonna invest as always, capitalism knows no morals.
HAHAHAHAHHAHA
This fuckin timeline, man…
Good time to buy then. He already pledged to increase funding to Israel. Just need to research what company supplies the most weapons for them and invest there.
Infinitely many monkeys on infinitely many typewriters with infinitely much time.
We are the monkeys. Look at what we’ve done.
"I am going to take over the world"
"And they will pay for it"
-Some idiot apparently
In case y'all forgot Trump's last term, his general pattern is to constantly announce insane plans and only follow through on a fraction of them. Cutting the pentagon's budget in half is one of the distractions. Some General will dandy himself up in his class A and jingle some blueprints for a useless wunderwaffe and the defense budget will go up.
Could it be a power move to pressure the military and try to have it approve fascism ?
::: spoiler also: defense in USA ~3% of GDP
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
The United States of America (USA), (...) is a country (...)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
2024 GDP $29.168 trillion
2023 defense ~$0.8 trillion (~2.74% of GDP)
...so, above the 2% NATO target.
:::
just last month lord diaper reiterated again that nato members should be spending five percent gdp on defense (up from the treaty's two percent). he's been whining about this one for like a decade now.
now he wants to spend less than even that two percent.
i think someone in the admin shorted some defense stocks, and this asinine statement is just to make a quick buck.
... or is this money thing just a distraction ? ... if they are going for fascism and totalitarianism ... if they get it, they won't care about money, once they have uncontested power. I say they are close to this point except for maybe the military who may oppose them.
Tariffs, military spending, deportations, fossil fuels - did he fire his economics person?
No, I think it's just that his economics person is Art Laffer.
If Trump fucks with the rich folks - those who have their hands in the pocket of our tax dollars - we'll be talking about President Vance next week.
i agree.
our defense budget is larger than the next 9 defense department equivalents in the world combined.
Wow something I actually agree with (even if I know the money won’t be going back to the taxpayer)
I just don't even know how I'd react if he successfully cut the defense budget in half. Would i have to join MAGA at that point?
Because... yeah, I hate everything he's done or let others do so far. His Cabinet is/ will be a nightmare. I assume this defense cut would come with more egregious tax cuts for the billionaire class.
But cutting that much from our stupid war budget ... man that's such a nice thing to get...
Why would defence have a "stock"
Defense contractors are mostly publicly traded companies. Raytheon, Lockheed, Boeing etc.
As opposed to having the government directly design planes and ships and stuff? Even in ‘communist’ countries such as Russia and China, they have companies that compete for business. Remember that essentially all the billions spent with these defense contractors is employing and producing products here as opposed to overseas.
Yooo sick
If this happens, the US MIC will shit all over the MAGAts. How many fucked up MAGAts work in the defense industry? Exactly, fuck them and they can join the "Parasite Class."
This is a perfect opportunity to clean house of all the leaders he know aren't loyal to him.
Oh if anyone is going to be successful in Kennedy-ing a President, it would be the military-industrial complex.
Keep cutting spending Donald, you're doing a great job!
If he guts the MIC I will be extremely pleasantly surprised.
Or MIC will just arrange for another president that won't cut their funding. Either is a net positive.