Trump Declares National Emergency to Ban Some Foreign Grid Equipment (whitehouse.gov)
- Reference: 0185226761
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/08/27/1652222/trump-declares-national-emergency-to-ban-some-foreign-grid-equipment
- Source link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/declaring-a-national-emergency-to-secure-the-united-states-bulk-power-system/
> Foreign-produced "bulk power" equipment is [2]now effectively banned , and the list of what constitutes such equipment is essentially everything used to make up the grid... much of which we are heavily dependent on foreign sources to supply.
In a Wednesday [3]executive order , President Trump said foreign supply of electric equipment "constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat" to national security. The Hill reports:
> Under the order, it will be up to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in coordination with other officials, to determine whether a piece of equipment poses an issue. The order could impact a wide range of equipment, including substations, transformers, batteries used for energy storage, generators, turbines, software and more. It does not lay out specific threats or single out any country by name.
>
> [...] Under the last Trump administration, the president put a similar order in place. The new order comes amid [4]several reported cyberattacks on U.S. water systems, which officials suspect have links to Iran, according to [5]The New York Times .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~dhartshorn
[2] https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/6054792-trump-national-emergency-power-grid/
[3] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/declaring-a-national-emergency-to-secure-the-united-states-bulk-power-system/
[4] https://it.slashdot.org/story/26/08/27/0041254/more-than-100-water-systems-were-hit-in-july-cyberattacks
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/us/politics/water-supply-warnings.html
I will repurpose an old Western Canadian slogan... (Score:2)
[1]Let the Southern Bastards Freeze in the Dark [energyregu...arterly.ca].
[1] https://energyregulationquarterly.ca/book-reviews/let-the-eastern-bastards-freeze-in-the-dark-the-west-versus-the-rest-since-confederation
Brilliant! (Score:4, Insightful)
A National Emergency Declaration that says we cannot purchase the critical equipment that is in such demand that it takes 6 months to 2 years to get already? We will just step out of line and let it go to whomever else wants it.
If there were available domestic suppliers of this equipment, all of the production would already be spoken for. There is unmet demand NOW.
[Oww, my balls!]
Coming soon... (Score:3)
I expect to see a bunch of foreign power companies staying at Trump properties, playing golf at Trump resorts, and buying a ton of Trump coin followed shortly by their equipment being said to be "safe" and allowed to be imported. We NEED this equipment because we don't make most of it here and definitely not enough of it, so it will have to be allowed in. This is just a way for Trump to get paid by them to be allowed in.
Re: (Score:2)
Outside of Mexico or Canada, power being sold to America is in the form of fuel, you are a fucking idiot. Lot of this the press cannot seem to get beyond TDS, most of this equipment type is supply chain certainty on cast AL, transformer cores and some switchgear. All that was made in America until outsourcing of the 1990s. This is big sweet kiss to General Electric, if they had not long ago shut down the US manufacturing base of cast AL parts base.
Re: Coming soon... (Score:2)
Trump Dick Sucker says what?
Re: Coming soon... (Score:2)
The issue isnt the components, those are simple. The issue is a huge amount of this equipment is bespoke, and the facilities and expertise are gone in the US to make them (GE has a facility theyve tried to rapidly grow, but itll be nowhere near enough for quite a while). With the explosion in datacenter growth and accompanying power infrastructure the lead time on equipment is five to ten years. Theres alternatives being developed domestically that are mass-producable that use some clever new techniques to
"Determination" Process (Score:2)
Either it will be in conjunction with a manufacturer liaison team of hookers bearing bags of coke, or brown envelopes stuffed with cash stuck to the inside of the packing crates.
Dude is gonna induce a depression (Score:3, Insightful)
Trade wars, sky-high inflation .. and he's doubling down on all the things causing it. What could go wrong? This is the golden age? Democrats are too dumb to play back his words and remind people we're supposed to be in a golden age.
He's been doing drastic shit for two years and it's not improved things for anyone except billionaires.
Re: (Score:1)
> He's been doing drastic shit for two years and it's not improved things for anyone except billionaires.
Gee, you don't think that was the plan all along, do you? Imagine a billionaire doing things that only billionaires would benefit from. Nobody could have seen that coming!
Re: (Score:2)
The Democratic "leadership" is fine with it. They can give their corporate and billionaire benefactors everything on their wish list, and if voters complain just say, "We'd love to help you, but those meanies on the other side of the aisle won't let us. Maybe if you send us more money we'll try harder!"
Re: (Score:2)
> Democrats are too dumb to play back his words and remind people we're supposed to be in a golden age.
They do so constantly. Trump supporters don't watch or trust media that show that, however. They're deeply, deeply committed to the cult and see whatever the hell they want to see. At this point even solipsists are more grounded in objective reality than Trump supporters.
Re: (Score:2)
> Democrats are too dumb to play back his words and remind people we're supposed to be in a golden age.
JFC, what more do you think the Democrats could do? There was nothing but "Orange Man will destroy this country" from them before the election if anyone would have fucking listened.
Forty-plus years of Fox News gaslighting, FUD, moral panics, and outright lies means that there is a large group of people who will consistently vote against their own interests in the name of "owning the libs". Constant drumbeat of "libruls bad" and thorough sanewashing of orange man and the GOP's policies made these people de
Re: (Score:2)
> JFC, what more do you think the Democrats could do? There was nothing but "Orange Man will destroy this country" from them before the election if anyone would have fucking listened.
> Forty-plus years of Fox News gaslighting,
Fox News is a problem because Bill Clinton signed the CDA, which permitted media consolidation. Same with Sinclair. What Democrats could have done was not cause the problem in the first fucking place.
How much absolutely horrible shit has to be done by establishment Democrats before we accept the simple fact that they are doing it on purpose because they don't want to win as that would kill the golden goose?
Re: (Score:2)
After 6+ years of these predictions, do you have any proof?
Actually a pretty good policy (Score:3)
There will need to be a lot of exceptions/exemptions, but the current condition is unsustainable. The protective relays are the main concern, so you should still be able to get "dumb" foreign equipment and add domestic protective relays.
Re: (Score:1)
And rely on outdated equipment with unreliable firmware to protect it.
Re: (Score:3)
The responses here are entirely predictable, but it's a legitimate concern. If China can shut off my router, that's one thing. If they can turn off the power grid, that's a different situation. It would be foolish to assume they and other countries are not at least trying to have that capability. I think having an audit of foreign made grid equipment is a good thing.
Smells like autarky (Score:2)
This goes way beyond China. The US wants to be able to stop trade on a dime with every single trading "partner" in the world, while making them dependent on their exports ... so the exact same industrial policy as China. Given the Greenland mess this isn't a theoretical risk to any US trading "partners" either.
The US has one ally left in the world, every other nation is an adversary.
If my kids (Score:2)
If I believed my kids when they come crying about every thing likes it's the end of the world and it's an emergency, then I'd long have joined them in their subjective immaturity. Not everything is a god damn emergency! Grow up, use the systems and processes in place and build a strong support network of professionals who you trust to do a good job. You don't need an emergency every time some issue comes up that needs careful thought and consideration and firm reasonable action. Trump is a kid with no idea
Re: (Score:2)
He needs to declare it an emergency to allow him to bypass congress.
Re: (Score:2)
> Trump is a kid with no idea how to effectively wield the machinery of government.
Trump is a foreign-affiliated attacker who is effectively wielding the machinery of government in order to damage and if possible destroy that government.
A Real Emergency? Prove it. (Score:1)
Do you think when a Democrat President is elected again and declares a National Emergency immediately halting the import of critical grid infrastructure, it might actually be believable because of the 5th SCIF meeting of the day just ended debriefing POTUS on the most heinous actions of traitorous trade activity going on beneath a Top Secret cover letter presented to a President about every 97 minutes as they consume the Shit du jour..
..or is it only an unbelievable threat to America because a Republican Pr
Re: (Score:2)
You know what isn’t a national emergency? The Epstein files.
Re: A Real Emergency? Prove it. (Score:2)
Well unless you're a victim in those files and people who victimized you are still alive and in power, or any other kid being raped by rich people today who look at how so many get away with it and can copy what they've done. Seems like that would be a national emergency given how many people in government would be complicit in not bringing justice to such situations. Maybe such cases as the new reckless ben investigation into ideal life and their ceo running a sex cult getting ignored by the fbi. S
Laying the groundwork (Score:3, Informative)
Next up will be a "national emergency" to prevent or disallow the results of the general election.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
They said that about both Bushs' and the first Trump administration, too.
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:1)
Sitting Trump's first term your country wasn't anywhere near to being a Fascist State as it is now, though.
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:2)
*During (stoopid keyboard)
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering that the first Trump administration triggered an attempted insurrection, *shrug*
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:2)
Not for people who pay attention it isn't
Re:Laying the groundwork (Score:5, Interesting)
For some definition of 'they', sure, there's always *someone* paranoid about the scenario.
However there's a fair amount more credible supposition over this one. Trump's sore loser reaction has paved the way for some dangerous moves.
In 2020, he only went to interfere *after* the fact, but he clearly interfered. When the results betrayed him, he sought to overturn them and when that failed he tried to ignore the electors and use their own anyway and as that failed he tried to get Pence to reject the election and as that failed he incited a mom to try to disrupt the proceedings. He learned that in a fair game he actually could lose and that was unacceptable and he was willing to do whatever it takes to replace a loss with a win.
Now he and opportunistic cohorts are already much more proactive about it. Every reason to anticipate any plausible excuse to rig or discard the elections as he has proven himself already willing to do so and is surrounded by a much more all-in administration than his first term. Already trying to mess with mail-in, already openly rigged the representative maps, already been working ICE and national guard troops to get the hang of domestic military operations. Stephen Miller once basically publicly fantasized about sending republican controlled national guard into democratic states against their will to make them bend to his will.
I do anticipate the election will be *held* and if and only if the results are a loss will they try anything like an 'emergency', but I absolutely expect ICE and national guards to be doing operations around strategic polling sites. Ostensibly about immigration or crime, but with the oh so coincidental side effect of voter suppression.
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:2)
If at first you don't succeed*, try try again.
* at overthrowing the current constitutional Republic based around centuries of democratic principles, and replacing it first with a unitary executive then using that authority to transform it into an autocratic executive system.
Re: (Score:2)
Who is they?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but in 2020 Trump was pretty confident that he was going to win reelection without needing a bunch of shenanigans.
This time, he's going to have come up with a pretty big fake emergency to suspend elections and remain in power IF that's something that he actually wants to do. I don't really think that he does, but man... he sure loves trolling liberals by posting Trump 2028 memes.
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:3)
I don't see what his plan for not spending the rest of his life locked up watching his family lose everything on the news is if not to remain in office...
Re: (Score:2)
> They said that about both Bushs' and the first Trump administration, too.
All those Flock cameras aren't being put up for nothing.
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:2)
...to disallow the general election itself.
Re: (Score:2)
Text of the Executive Order starts:
"Only the terrorists would vote for anyone but the greatest president ever! All real 'Mericans would vote for me, so what's the point of elections anyway? Do you want the terrorists to win?"
USPS not allowed to move mail due to Foreign Equip (Score:2)
USPS not allowed to move mail due to Foreign Equipment that need to be swapped out. Makeing that mail in vote come in to late.
Re: (Score:2)
> Next up will be a "national emergency" to prevent or disallow the results of the general election.
Tell me again how badly America needs to pass the SAVE Act.
No, no. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Doubling down with long-TDS worked out great. I think Democrats should triple down next time.
That'll really teach 'em.
And pay no attention to those screaming at you for tossing the ball back through your own goalposts. They're just jealous.
Re: (Score:3)
>> Next up will be a "national emergency" to prevent or disallow the results of the general election.
> Tell me again how badly America needs to pass the SAVE Act.
> No, no. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Doubling down with long-TDS worked out great. I think Democrats should triple down next time.
> That'll really teach 'em.
> And pay no attention to those screaming at you for tossing the ball back through your own goalposts. They're just jealous.
What the hell does any of this even mean?
Re: Laying the groundwork (Score:3)
He has no idea.