Trump’s attacks on California condemn America to dependency on China

The 21st-century economy — from our smartphones and F-35 fighter jets to wind turbines and electric vehicles — runs on 17 obscure metals known as rare earth elements. Control their supply, and you control the technological high ground. For decades, America ceded this control, a strategic blunder that left our security perilously dependent on China, which now dominates over 80% of the global supply chain.

The Trump administration, to its credit, correctly identifies this vulnerability as a five-alarm fire. Its diagnosis is accurate and plans for a $12 billion dollar strategic stockpile heartening. Its other proposed solutions, however, have been a series of bizarre and coercive foreign policy gambits that betray a fundamental misunderstanding of American strength. READ MORE