In his interview with Brett Baier on FOX News, Trump revealed that he is making a deal with Ukraine in exchange for our continuing to support their fight against Russian aggression. He demands control and ownership of Ukraine’s natural resources. He says Zelensky agreed.
Imagine Trump as president when World War II begins. Winston Churchill begs him to help stave off Hitler s attacks. Europe is being overrun. Bombs are hitting central London. Churchill calls Trump and pleads for help, for arms and men. Trump says, “What’s in it for us?” Whatever Churchill offers is not enough. Trump says, “We will sit this one out.” Hitler overruns Europe and England, as Trump watches from afar.
We entered the war to protect Ukraine after it was invaded by Russia. Ukraine was striving to join the West, to join the European Union, perhaps even NATO. President Biden thought it was in our national interest to prevent Putin from conquering a country that aspired to be a democracy. Most of the arms shipped to Ukraine were made in America; no American troops were deployed. It made sense to stop Putin’s aggression. It never occurred to Biden or his State Department to demand a price from a nation that was suffering daily from massive bombardments that wiped out schools, hospitals, transportation, the electrical grid, apartment buildings, museums, and whole cities, as well as thousands of innocent civilians.
Politico has the story. No paywall.
American support for Ukraine has a price tag: $500B worth of mineral riches, said U.S. President Donald Trump.
In the second part of an interview with Fox News that aired late Monday, the Republican said the U.S. should get a slice of Ukraine’s vast natural resources as compensation for the hundreds of billions it has spent on helping Kyiv resist Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“I told them [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent like $500B worth of rare earth. And they’ve essentially agreed to do that so at least we don’t feel stupid,” Trump said.
“Otherwise, we’re stupid. I said to them we have to — ‘we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money,’” he added.
Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, from lithium to titanium, which are vital to manufacturing modern technologies. It also has vast coal reserves, as well as oil, gas and uranium, but much of this is in territories under Russian control.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Elon Musk needs the rare earth minerals for his Tesla Megapacks Battery Factory. The one he just opened Tuesday 2/11/25 that magically got built in only 7 months deep inside Shanghai China’s manufacturing zone.
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Imagine trump going to putin and telling him to stop fighting and pull out because ‘I want that rare earth, it is mine. So get out’
LOL
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ladyfair: Do you mean Putin might not want to get out of Ukraine just to be nice to Trump?
But how many times can I say “OMG!” when I open my mail?
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Two thoughts: putin wants the land because at one time it was all under russian rule and he wants it back…. or he wants all the rare earth to himself including the oil.
But will putin bend to the convicted felon’s demands? This could be a new bingo card square.
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HA! But Putin is so warped (according to his history of reading murder mysteries and having grown up with the KGB), there are probably several distorted motivational threads woven into his interior comportment, such as it is. So probably “yes” on both counts, and more.
But Trump really did fill a vacuum that (in my view) was formed by the long-time (60+ years) neo-liberal efforts in the US concerning (1) tech-brain-ism (stem, while limiting foundational education including history and civics); with (2) ultra-capitalism, which has morphed into the “predatory” greed and transactional thought that we see in people like Trump, Musk, and the techno-fascists in this morning’s news . . . whose limited horizon lends to their probably knowing no other way of thinking. If so, then they think everyone either thinks the way they do (cool) or we are all just suckers.
All in all, my sense of pride in being an American has been severely diminished. And I don’t see that recovering anytime soon. CBK
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That is how Trump intends to serve “America first,” by extortion and quid pro quo. However, this bullying will undermine the relations we have with allies and diminish our standing in the world.
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If you give us what we want, then, we’ll, sell you the weapons that may “help” you win your wars, and we make money off of your wars, and, if you don’t fulfill “our requests” to you to, give us what we want, then, we will, leave you to, ROT. Everything IS, a quid pro quo, a, tit for tat, under Trump, with no sense of, what’s, MORALLY, responsible. That is, one country, under, Trump, becomes, as Trump MAKES himself, G-O-D!
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No American troops were deployed???
A tRumpian lie?
Yes, there have been American troops deployed. See: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65245065
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Transactional Trump. Who would have imagined?
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Trump is accustomed to using his legal team to intimidate vendors he owes and and vocal critics. He is full of himself with the US military and treasury behind him. He can bully and intimidate other countries including allies which will alienate us from the rest of the western world.
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Who gets the money?
A. FELON47, the lifelong cheater, liar, convicted rapist, fraud, crime family lord, January 6, 2021, TRAITOR, first US dictator, et al.
B. The United States
If this was a test, I would not pick “B”.
I think I predicted this sociopath would become the world’s first trillionaire.
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He is fashioning himself after Putin. What’s next, dissidents falling out of windows?
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According to an AP article, it was Zelenskyy who first offered this deal to Trump regarding the rare earths materials: Quote – KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump for continued American military aid in exchange for developing Ukraine’s mineral industry, which could provide a valuable source of the rare earth elements that are essential for many kinds of technology.
Trump said that he wanted such a deal earlier this month, and it was initially proposed last fall by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in future negotiations with Moscow.
“We really have this big potential in the territory which we control,” Andrii Yermak, chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “We are interested to work, to develop, with our partners, first of all, with the United States.” end quote
It will be quite a tricky operation to mine for rare earths while the Russians are bombing the area. In any case, Trump is really a despicable jerk for making life even more difficult for the Ukrainians.
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Trump will help them until the resources run out, then stiff them.
Trump never keeps his word. And he definitely doesn’t give a sh*t about Ukraine’s future. Putin will tell him to stop, and he’ll stop.
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Let’s see. $500 billion worth of rare earths and minerals.
“I told them (Ukraine) that I want the equivalent like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” he recalled, adding: “And they’ve essentially agreed to do that so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
Ukraine possesses significant reserves of critical minerals, including lithium, titanium, and uranium, which are essential for advanced technologies.
Much of these resources, however, are located in areas currently occupied by Russian forces. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/russia-ukraine-war/trump-seeks-500b-in-rare-earths-from-ukraine-in-exchange-for-continued-support/3478978
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