Pentagon approaches automakers, manufacturers to boost weapons production, WSJ reports

Hey, since nobody's going to be buying your cars for.. reasons, you think you could put all that idle production capacity to work on bullets for our endless wars with uh.. anyone? Everyone? Whatever, more bullets.

We fired billions in rockets and missiles for what? Higher gas prices and a humiliating loss to Iran?! Now they want your cars to cost more so they can do it again? We spent the equivalent of **the entire NIH budget** in SIX DAYS of war. If the estimated economic fallout (~$1T)occurs, we will have wasted TWENTY YEARS of NIH funding for nothing. A fifth of a century of scientific and medical progress, literally set on fire. All for what? Israel? Ego? Lunacy? Whatever it was, it wasn’t for any of us. The GOP are unqualified and unworthy of office. They all need to go. They are destroying our economy, our reputation, our pride. Vote them all out, every last one. From senate to school board, we need a purge.

Why would we need to boost ammo supplies when we are not at war?

It's time for our once in every 3-10 year taxpayer funded bailout of the auto industry. This time it's brought to you by DoD spending.

Why is Americans' money being wasted on meaningless wars in the Middle East?

Everyone is going poor while the rich buy all the assets. As long as people are c**** and assets are expensive, the rich will use the poor to acquire assets. This is the basis of war. If you want to stop the war, tax the rich.

Is the next step to issue ration cards to control gas and food prices?

Can't afford healthcare, can only afford more war.

So the kill the EV subsidies for the auto industry just so China can take over global EV production and instead use that money to buy bomb craters in Iran.

So the government is going to use taxpayer dollars to buy military vehicles from American auto makers. These automakers will likely have to import the parts/raw materials from countries with tariffs. These tariffs get paid into some account that Trump's people control. Doesn't this seem like money laundering?

It was either Robert Reich or Richard Wolff who warned months ago that this fascist regime was transitioning to a war economy, sacrificing the well being of future generations of Americans.

This isn't WWII where you can throw together thousands of tanks or P-51s every week.

Ironically, I work at an aerospace company making lots of these products and we really haven’t seen demand increase. We even make major components for some stuff you see in the news frequently.

We will help bust the unions for you guys in return.

American auto makers can’t even make compelling vehicles compared to the Chinese and Koreans anymore and now we’re desperate for them to build weapons?

I really, really, really hope that companies have the gall to stand up to the Trump administration on this one. This is very consequential. We're essentially trying to central plan our way into transforming consumer goods manufacturing capacity into munitions and other military-bound parts and supplies. Not only is this an unheard of amount of influence directly in private companies outside of the world wars, but it's creating an economic incentive structure to *keep manufacturing these things at the expense of consumer goods supplies, even after the Iran War.* The intermingling of private and public interests like this is one of the foundational aspects of how a fascist economy works. The more companies work with the government not through regulations but through direct actions, the more they're expected to bend the knee in the future and accede to the whims of power instead of the whims of the market. When wartime economies start, they don't tend to stop unless there's a reason. With Trump and his ilk already stating Cuba is "next" and attempting old-school imperialism across the globe, what incentive would companies who have just paid millions in capital expenditures to be able to make weapons for the government have when conflict stops? Do they have an incentive to spend millions more (likely without any financial assistance from the federal government this time) to retrofit their machinery back to consumer goods manufacturing once again? Or, perhaps, does the consistent and lucrative new manufacturing pipeline try its best to persist through outward corruption and lobbying, ensuring peace is temporary and their profits persist? I don't see how this is anything but an accelerationist move. And for what, exactly...? Thousands of lives lost in the Middle East? Skyrocketing energy and fertilizer prices, the downstream effects of which we're only *beginning* to feel? Tension with another global power (China) since we're effectively embargoing a large portion of their energy imports, putting us in a situation where one flare-up can potentially start WWIII? An embarrassing amount of hubris that sends our brothers and sisters to die because of the neurotic decisions of a dementia-addled octogenarian? Invoking the 25th now is the best move our politicians could do to protect our future. Call your representatives and demand justice and rationality.

This won’t work for a variety of reasons. Sure you could get humvees, but there isn’t a shortage of humvees in the U.S. military . Other military equipment is much more specialized. A ford or a gmc can’t just retool a multi continent supply chain to manufacture a tank without it costing an enormous sum of money and taking a long time. Further still the rare earth shortage hit companies like gmc and ford really bad when China did it last time; that would imperil their entire business if they integrated defense contacts into it even more. The shortage of equipment is going to be coming from things like rockets, precision guided munitions, air defense systems, etc… but those things take an enormous amount of expertise to design and have supply chains that are convoluted. The engineers who work on those have high security clearance standards, and the companies making them have been in the business for decades. This isn’t something that can be willed into existence overnight and the business models are radically different. The U.S. isn’t used to waging war designed around country to country wars, and current business models for gmc/ ford are largely based around peacetime profit optimization (low buffer stock, lean manufacturing; order as needed from global suppliers who can ship things over as needed), it’s not built to do that type of business.

p sure this is what they did during ww2 🤡

Called it right when Trump got elected. They’d blow the economy to pieces, then use existing industry to make war machines to use on former friends and allies to steal from them. This is what the Nazis did too when they were driving their nation straight to hell.

Preparing for a longer war?

Nothing says a war is almost over like turning your manufacturing capacity to a war footing

everything they do is like textbook Third Reich shit, and yet we're told we're overreacting. Their stupid energy policies are going to destroy the domestic auto industry, so now they are going to use taxpayer money to buy them off and turn them into weapons companies.

Ah, a wartime economy without the boom of a wartime economy. Moving straight to the economic depression.

War machine keeps stealing our tax dollars.

For a “no new wars” presidential promise, this sure sounds like going all-in for the military-industrial complex. But of course, all those social programs will have to go to pay for it.

Cause the war is so close to being finished!

Knowing how reliable American cars are in recent years, I wouldn’t bet my money on those weapons.

In all honesty our Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is not performing as well as it should be in order to allow us to fight a major protracted conflict. It will take years to replace the munitions we spent in a month of war with Iran. I’m not saying this is the right move, and I’m sure the poor decisions that this admin has made are compounding the issue, but I think we need to explore all options at this point.

Lol this is like the first time around when he decided to announce that Kodak would be making medical equipment now. Anyone tried out the new Kodak MRI machines yet? Yeah, me either.

You'd think we're fighting the Nazis again with how hard these fuckers are pushing for help with their stupid war

So the government wouldn't open up production during covid for vital medical supplies while hundreds of thousands of Americans were being killed  but hey they'll open up production to commit genocide. Just a bunch of f****** fascists. 

I know we’re tired. They’ve been wearing us down. We need to do something about the Epstein files. If they’re taken down, their power stripped, generally *any* way we can remove them from society, this too will end. The branches of government have failed. The courts have failed. The enforcement has failed. We’re quiet because the only option left is not civilized. The deal we made with them has been broken, but they removed our teeth. State militias have been replaced with a federal entity. We no longer have anything protecting us. Besides ourselves.

I'll never buy a car from a manufacturer who helps illegally bomb Iran, and I'll sell my Mazda immediately if they somehow get on board.

I never thought the day would come where I admit I'm embarrassed to be an Amerikkkan. Land of the almost free, home of the once brave...

Nobody has money for cars, but the gov has the money printer for the military. Go where the money is.

How about asking Smith& Wesson to make affordable houses?

Elon is going to suck more taxpayer monies

Between this, and triggering a mandatory auto-draft between ages 18 to 26... What in the f*** are they planning?

nothing alarming here... totally not pressuring industry to gear up for wartime production as the forever war they have gotten us into threatens to spiral into a larger conflict or anything...

Please no. We don't need more weapons for needless war that harm innocent lives snd makes our allies hate us. Also, wouldn't't this take years to shift gears? Lol. Like rebuild certain assembly machinery from the grounds up or replace them. By the time the swap equipment, the stupid wars that trump is pursuing will likely be abandoned, end, and etc.

maybe start with solving the food rationing issue that's going on with troops currently fighting the epstein war?

I really think that we should adopt legislation that makes a popular vote mandatory for any proactive wars. Neither Venezuela nor Iran were emergency situations that required immediate action. The people of this country should be the ones who decide if an invasion or bombing campaign or regime change is worth it, not some 80 year old dude who literally doesn't care about what happens in 20 years. At the very least, it should require congressional approval, but a popular vote would make far more sense.

Eh, I'm certain there are absolutely no parallels to 1930's Germany here We are cooked

So... World War Three?

They changed their name to Department of War. I guess they have to act like it.

I'm sure we'll hear no complaints about "government meddling in private industry".

lol the irony of going to automakers who are about to get crushed by tariffs. "hey we know we just made your supply chain a nightmare but could you also make missiles pls" tbh this is pretty standard diversification playbook though. happened in ww2, happened during korea. the manufacturing base is there, retooling is faster than building from scratch. whether we *should* need to is a different question entirely

Switching the US to a war time economy would be a great excuse for cancelling the midterms.

So we boycott whoever agrees to to do this

Ah the good ol’ shift to a war time economy. How long before they starts loaning detainees to factories to increase productivity?

The national debt has got to be insane and senseless at that…

Imagine working 10-30 years for one of these companies. Taking pride in the cars and trucks you have helped produce all those years and now are told by the company, we are switching gears and will be making missiles to kill large groups of people. An all girls school perhaps. I don’t think I could keep working for one of these companies.

How about f*** off and release the Epstein files? That's a cheaper and safer alternative 

You know what will fix high gas prices, a shortage of new cars!!! - Brilliant!!!

Well someone’s stock just went up. Maybe a big 3 combination of stocks? Ya think ?

This is why the US prop up American Automakers and don’t allow Chinese EVs

That’s a good sign, right?

Israel needs more bombs...snap to it!

You wanna sell even fewer cars now and whenever this war ends? — Pentagon to Automakers

"Used cars are the bread and butter of the automotive economy and only morons are buying new cars so, start making things that hurt and maim, ok?  Kthnxbye!"

This is where they realize that the American industrial sector has been obliterated already

Should start asking shoe companies.

I remember the tracked APC we had on the farm growing up was of Ford manufacture. WW2 surplus. We used it for clearing old orchards for pasture. Good ol' Bren Gun Carrier.

My dream of driving a rocket might happen

When it’s going great 

I would absolutely love a surplus Ford AR15

Oh that’s always a great sign

They really wanna wartime economy this b****... THESE MOTHER FUCKERS WANT TO PLAY HOI4 IRL.

Well, naturally, if you have infinite munitions as Hegseth and Trump like to pretend the only problem you have is uh demanding more ……boosted production?!!! But, why that might mean…. Making those silly statements as if they are children and then seeing these real world proofs of the outright lies is part of why all in this trainwreck other than possibly Rubio but definitely including Trump should become fired pariahs. No Ayatollahs could put words into Hegseth and Trump’s mouths worse for US prestige and alliances and world trade than the words they themselves say.

This is like all the worst parts of the “‘member berries” South Park idea…

War is good for the economy. The world needs to change this equation so there's less incentive.

We’ve gone from ventilators to mutilators in auto plants. UHHHHMMEERRRRIIIIIICCUCHHHHH

How much more will these businesses charge ? Will Republicans void the tax cuts given to the wealthy (about $7 trillion) and use these tax cuts to cover military spending or will Republicans cut further federal funding for the few benefits that Americans still receive?

Never mind competing with BYD for affordable EV's

This is like when I convert my factories in Hearts of Iron 4 Someone please just get Trump a copy

And that’s how Elon Musk joined the defense industry.

Todays 37 dead in school missile attack brought to you by Ford, when you need a missile delivery system, nothing beats a Ford.  And when you need a bunker buster, Ford Tough gets it done!

I f****** hate the military industrial complex. Everything should be brought in house. Cut out the middle men. Cut Boeing, NG and LM out of the picture. We would save so much money. Also, public pressure and influence could reign that shit in.