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.”

  • Tja@programming.dev
    6·
    1 day ago

    “A few years from now” is longer than “last week”, so if that was his goal he didn’t do a great job.

    Or maybe as the leader of a sovereign country he wasn’t willing to sign a deal where he gave something and got nothing in return (security guarantees).