That reminds me, when Trump says that states under the protection of American-powered alliances should pay tribute to the United States in exchange? They absolutely fucking already do. It’s largely buried in basing agreements and weapons sales (and especially ongoing maintenance and service contracts) to avoid irritating the locals, channeled through the military-industrial complex stateside, but they absolutely do.

That’s what was going on with Australia and the F-35, why the government was so damn intent at throwing money at an overpriced, undercompetent and not particularly cried-out-for system, because that’s not the point, the point is to reaffirm the American alliance in the face of China’s expanding territorial and economic ambitions in the region.

That’s the subtext behind Jeremy Corbyn’s disinterest in maintaining the UK’s fleet of Trident boomer subs, and of the Scottish nationalists’ inclination to evict them from their deep-water ports - the expensive Trident program…me (and before it the Polaris) are effectively the basis on which the UK licenses a great power franchise from the US.