Oval Office Outburst Reveals Flaws in U.S.-Ukraine Rare Earth Minerals Deal
spectrum.ieee.org
A chaotic Oval Office press conference on Feb. 28 revealed a nonsensical U.S.-Ukraine deal for rare earths, baffling experts who knew Ukraine lacks viable deposits. Is Trump’s rare-earth strategy misguided political theater? With China dominating the market, why ignore U.S. resources? #RareEarths #PoliticalDrama

Experts say proposed deal with U.S. makes no sense

“If you want critical minerals, Ukraine ain’t the place to look for them,” declares Jack Lifton, executive chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute. “It’s a fantasy. There’s no point to any of this. There’s some other agenda going on here. I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine.”

  • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
    4·
    14 hours ago

    Because he didn’t come here to sign it, he came to force Trump make his position clear to the world. He stayed calm, he thanked Trump plenty, he didn’t rise to the insults… He even printed out big pictures to hand to trump one at a time, they way he likes

    He kissed the ring so he could make Ukraine’s position clear - they don’t trust Russia’s word, they have no doubt Russia will break any deal made without security guarantees, with good reason. They offered the trump white house investment opportunities to see if that would realign the US with Ukraine, but even if we were to cripple our future with the numbers Trump responded with, he’ll still give Russia everything Putin wants

    He was the only adult in that room, and he wanted the world to see it. He made the US position clear (Trump’s position at least) - this isn’t a negotiation tactic or an an effort to get concessions, Trump supports Putin over America’s allies

    And it worked. The EU immediately met when he returned, they announced deals for like 1.5 trillion over the next couple years to set up their own military production, and they’re preparing troops to mobilize