Each one of the 59 Tomahawk missiles fired by the US Navy, by order of Trump, at the Syrian air base in Homs cost somewhere between $800,000 and $1.4 million — per missile. This obviously expensive surge in US military spending subsequently sent the manufacturer’s stock soaring. It also sent the Free Thought Project on an investigation into the types of stocks in which President Trump invests. What we found is shocking, but sadly, typical.
Tomahawk missiles are manufactured by a company, with whom most people are familiar, Raytheon.
According to Raytheon’s website: “Today’s Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile can circle for hours, shift course instantly on command and beam a picture of its target to controllers halfway around the world before striking with pinpoint accuracy. Tomahawk can be launched from a ship or submarine and can fly into heavily defended airspace more than 1,000 miles away to conduct precise strikes on high-value targets with minimal collateral damage. Launching the weapon from such a long distance helps to keep sailors out of harm’s way.”
However, some may not be familiar with the fact that according to the President’s most recent FEC disclosure, the Trumps actual own or have owned stock in Raytheon. That’s right, the 59 missiles, that Trump hurled at Syria — which cost taxpayers somewhere between $47 million and $82 million — could’ve actually turned a profit for the president.
The report showed that Trump also owns or has owned stock in many well-known companies including Apple, Nike, Whole Foods, Google, Philip Morris, McDonald’s, Facebook, and Morgan Stanley, among many others — including many other defense contractors who stand to make billions off Trump’s aggression.
“We need to know, has he put them in conflict free assets … or has he bought other stocks or assets that would create new conflicts?” Norm Eisen, who served as ethics counselor to President Obama asked. “It’s all the more reason that we need a prompt and full financial disclosure. If he did liquidate all his stocks, what did he do with the money? What bank is the money in? What did he buy? It’s a lot of money.”
According to Business Insider, shares of Raytheon gained 3.54 points, a roughly 2.3 percent increase, in pre-market trading following Thursday night’s strike.
Of course, 2.3 percent doesn’t sound like a whole lot, however, if we take into account the effect it has on Raytheon’s total market value, it is definitely significant. On Thursday, Raytheon closed at $150.75 and on Friday morning, it opened at $154.62. This shot the company’s market value up from $44.1 billion to $45.4 billion — nearly one and a half billion — in a day.
Lockheed Martin and Boeing saw similar gains.
Also, according to Open Secrets, Trump wasn’t just giving to Raytheon but they were also giving to him.
According to Trump’s most recent Financial Disclosure Report, his stock holdings were held in accounts with Barclays, Oppenheimer, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank. However, the way that the disclosure from the FEC is structured only requires presidential candidates to list their holdings in broad ranges. So, we don’t know how large of a stake he had in these companies.
Trump’s situation, however shocking, is nothing new. Consequently, the last time there was talk of military action in Syria, in 2013, Raytheon’s stock soared to an all-time high.
According to US officials, arms manufacturers have added shifts and hired workers, but they warn that this may not be enough to keep up with the world’s demand for weapons of mass destruction.
As the US sends tens of thousands of warheads to Saudi Arabia so they can bomb schools and hospitals in Yemen, they are dropping hundreds of bombs in Iraq and Syria.
Instead of realizing that the bombs and US foreign policy are the actual sources of terrorism, war monger politicians like Bush, Obama, and now Trump use fear to steal your tax dollars to feed this machine.
Thanks to the invasive and murderous US foreign policy, there is no shortage of ‘Islamic Extremism’ to attack in the Middle East. Not only is Saudi Arabia receiving US arms, but so are many of the other Gulf states as well as Syrian ‘rebels.’
After his retirement from the Marine Corps, Major General Smedley D. Butler made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech “War is a Racket,” which sums this scenario up quite well.
What separates Butler from other historical military figures is that he is one of only 19 people in history to win the Medal of Honor, twice. So, when a highly decorated, two-star general takes to the stage to assert that war is a racket, people listen — most people, anyway.
In one of his speeches, Butler decried war and pointed out how so many people died just to benefit a very small ‘inside’ group. The speech read in part,
WAR IS A RACKET. IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN.
IT IS POSSIBLY THE OLDEST, EASILY THE MOST PROFITABLE, SURELY THE MOST VICIOUS. IT IS THE ONLY ONE INTERNATIONAL IN SCOPE. IT IS THE ONLY ONE IN WHICH THE PROFITS ARE RECKONED IN DOLLARS AND THE LOSSES IN LIVES.
Sadly, very few people inside this detached and brutal government ever come to realize the true nature of war. As the threat of World War III looms across the planet, the American taxpayers are being fleeced to build the weapons with which this world war will be carried out — all the while, the commander and chief is reaping the benefits.
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