It is pathetic if egoistic concern over gas prices is the thing that sours MAGA on Trump, after all the shit Trump has done.

as authorities

You can pick any authority you want. No reasonable person disagree on what international law says here.

Everybody benefits from the free trade system working - and that depends on international freedom of navigation law being respected. Also Trump voting Republicans, and Republican Congressmen, benefit.

In a sane world, US voters would stop Trump. In their own rational self interest.

That is the question. The current world system depends on there not being these kinds of tolls. But if Trump legitimizes them, then world trade could be fucked.

The current system has worked so well for so long, people don’t even seem to realize how much wealth it generates for everybody. And that it doesn’t need to be this way. Actually not unlike what happens in the US, if the rule of law collapses completely.

not a legally enforceable rule.

Anything is enforceable with enough bombs, if there is a will. Any previous US President, Democrat or Republican, would have enforced it no question.

Trump is President. Trump is the US right now. It is dangerous to pretend he is not.

And it is not just an aberration. Congress could remove Trump any time they wanted to. But they do not.

This specific part of international law has been almost universally observed for many decades. It actually matters.

Says who?

The most extraordinary thing here is perhaps that the US is not saying so. With Trump talking about imposing tolls. It used to be that like the #1 priority of Pax Americana was to insure international freedom of navigation.

But Trump just casually throws that out the window, I assume in an unvetted 2AM Truth Social rant (I haven’t actually checked where and when Trump said it).

This is insane. I don’t know why this hasn’t got wider news coverage.

I were not able to find a better news article, but this news article somehow failed to mention the central fact that anybody demanding tolls, whether Iran or USA or both, is unambiguously illegal under international law. It is an international strait, and there is right of navigation for ships. Legal Eagle describes why the tolls are illegal: Trump’s Illegalist War Gets Illegaler.

Ukraine literally has a land border with the EU, where the US has large equipment stockpiles and perfect logistics. Logistically it is likely much easier for the US to send stuff to Ukraine.

Yup - and Trump can un-undermine those sanctions.

Like what? Putin needs his missiles himself.

And remember that the US, is way, way more militarily powerful than Russia. The US has tons of spare military capacity, unlike Russia. Russia would lose an escalation war, and Russia knows it.

The US is already sending a large amount of military material to Ukraine

No it isn’t. Trump stopped all new aid.

Only what Europe paid for is being sent.

what could anyone do to prevent it?

Just send a few hundred tomahawk missiles as military aid to Ukraine. Then tell Russia that if Russia does not stop, the US will send more.

Trump could absolutely stop it, if he wanted to. Just send a few hundred tomahawk missiles as military aid to Ukraine. Then tell Russia that if Russia does not stop, the US will send more.

Even if acknowledged, the US is not going to go to war with Russia. The US could sanction Russia, though.

Or kinetic sanctions - resume aid to Ukraine. Just give more stuff for Ukraine to shoot into Russia. Let Russia learn its lesson real fast.

The US would never agree to paying reparations. […] The US government pays

Why would Trump care about the US government paying Iran money? It is not Trump’s money.

As long as the billionaire-owned Trump supporting media in the US doesn’t make a big deal out of it, why would it have negative consequences for Trump? While not completely analogous, Trump seems to have gotten away just fine with giving Argentina $billions.

Orban already won the previous N elections using fuckery. The test has already shown that this kind of managed democracy can “work” for fascists.

In Orban’s own mouse-lion fable analogy, the lion(=Russia) has done a great favor for the mouse(=Orban) earlier.

Sooooo - what exactly is it Putin has done for Orban, to put Orban in debt to Putin? And with Orban being a selfish fascist bastard, why does Orban feel so stridently obligated to pay Putin back?

It sure would be nice if Hungary was “at the service” of its nominal allies in the EU and the democratic West. Instead of being at the service of Putin, who sees us as his enemy.