No, Trump’s Minerals Deal Isn’t Bad for America — It’s Exactly What the U.S. Needs to Get Started

Now More Than Ever, America Needs This Deal

How do you reconcile the BBC calling the U.S.-Ukraine bilateral deal “preliminary” while Politico slams it as “bad”? You don’t. Only one of them can be right. It can’t be both.

And Politico? They’re wrong. Calling Trump’s deal “bad” is premature at best, misleading at worst. Right now, what’s on the table is nothing more than a framework — and even that is subject to change. Given the geo-political chess match unfolding over the past month, just as much is happening behind closed doors as in the public eye.

So making sweeping declarations? That’s reckless. The real game is still being played. We need to wait before drawing our conclusions.

Politico did point their fingers at the right direction, but ended up offering a solution that retains the dangerous path the world is currently in.

China — which processes nearly 90 percent of rare earths worldwide — holds a “near monopoly” over this step in the supply chain, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Most major rare earth producers, including the U.S., lack the domestic know-how or infrastructure needed to refine the minerals…