There is no greater betrayal by the U.S. government than failing to protect the safety and security of the American people.
But this, in fact, was the case prior to Trump, because Washington abdicated its responsibility to protect and develop all-important rare earth elements that are critically necessary in the production of high-tech military weapons systems, like F-16, F-22 and F-35 jet fighters, drones, and AI-driven systems.
Rather, the U.S. has become dependent on China.
In fact, the U.S. government admits that we rely on China for 100% of 20 key minerals and rare earth elements that are required by our high-tech defense systems.
Such incompetence at the federal level borders on treason.
As with the production of lithium and cobalt that power electric vehicles, China also controls most of the global rare earth supply chain, including mining, processing, and refinement.
At present, the U.S. has only one operational rare Earth’s mine.
But . . . we do not have the capacity to process heavy rare earths, so we send the mine’s ore to China for processing.
The U.S. was in fact the largest producer of rare earths until the 1980s, with well-known companies that manufactured rare earth magnets.
How did this collapse of domestic independence and capability happen?
In short, it has been due to the left’s long march through the institutions — effectively supplanting America’s constitutional republic with an "administrative state," also known as the "deep state."
Over the last 50 years Congress failed to properly oversee, rein-in and direct the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to support national security priorities and goals.
Bureaucratic U.S. government agencies became peppered with progressives seeking political influence.
And so, the administrative state of government agencies became increasingly politicized and hostile to developments such as logging, drilling, and mining — often under questionable pretexts of protecting nature or one or more endangered species.
While the media was preoccupied with the organized opposition to the high-visibility Keystone Pipeline Project, the Biden administration was quietly quashing other U.S. natural resource development, suspending mining projects and proposals, such as:
—The Pebble Mine in Alaska, one of the greatest stores of mineral wealth ever discovered.
—The Twin Metals and Duluth Complex Mines in Minnesota.
—The Twin Pines Mine in Georgia.
In the name of "protecting the environment," Biden and his elitist supporters of the radical green agenda bottled up America’s most valuable resources.
Recently, S & P Global ranked the United States second to last among the top mining countries globally based on the length of time it takes to tap a major deposit.
In estimated oil reserves, the U.S. previously ranked below Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela, and it was believed that oil and gas hydrocarbon deposits in the U.S. would run out in 40 to 50 years.
But with advances in seismic geological analysis and breakthroughs in horizontal shale drilling and fracking technologies, America’s real and estimated oil and gas reserves exploded, making the U.S. number one globally.
In 2018 under Trump, America became the world’s largest oil and gas producer.
Just as U.S. oil and gas reserves skyrocketed from new discovery and recovery technologies, the reserves of rare earth elements in the U.S. are much greater than previously estimated, if only we create economic incentives and allow exploration on public lands, which previously has been restricted.
The implications of President Trump’s Feb. 3, 2025 Executive Order No. 14196, "A Plan for Establishing a United States Sovereign Wealth Fund," are revolutionary.
What's likely to be unveiled soon is a masterful plan, adding tremendous wealth to the asset side of the U.S fiscal ledger. That will strengthen the U.S. balance sheet, adding the value of enormous previously undeclared natural resource assets to offset the $36-plus trillion in national debt liability.
This sovereign wealth fund can serve to maximize the stewardship of the natural resource wealth of the United States and facilitate the financial return on our rare earth elements needed by the defense industry — strengthening U.S. defensive capabilities and war deterrence. Long-term it will ensure the independent ability to project unquestioned superior U.S. military power.
Even without including rare earth elements in the sovereign wealth fund, the domestic quantities of which are presently unknown, the value of just four known major U.S. natural resources will dramatically strengthen the U.S. balance sheet:
- U.S. oil and natural gas reserves total about $19.4 trillion
- U.S. coal deposits total about $2.5 trillion
- U.S. gold deposits total about $2.2 trillion
- U.S. copper deposits total about $8.4 trillion
President Trump has received criticism for upending the status quo in the funding and size of the U.S. government.
But if this sovereign wealth fund gets legs, President Trump may go down in the history books as the first president who did the impossible of strengthening both national defense and the national treasury simultaneously.
Scott S. Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. His timeless book is, "Rediscovering America." Scott can be reached at scottp@discovery.org. Read Scott S. Powell's Reports — More Here.
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