The Trump administration’s decision to create a national stockpile of critical minerals is long overdue and strategically essential. Critical minerals underpin the modern economy and are at the center of America’s competition with China. Washington must safeguard its supply of strategic minerals and prevent Beijing from gaining a stranglehold on them.
On Feb. 2, the White House announced “Project Vault,” a $12 billion effort to build a national reserve of critical minerals such as cobalt and gallium. About $1.7 billion will come from private seed funding, with the remainder backed by the United States government’s Export-Import Bank.
It is money well spent.
Project Vault is necessary and innovative. The U.S. has long had a strategic oil reserve, so it makes sense to have the same for critical minerals.
China, America’s foremost foe, dominates the critical minerals sector. In recent years, an estimated 70% of these vital substances come from China. Last year, the figure shot up to 80%. This potentially gives Beijing the ability to bring the U.S. economy to its knees.
Critical minerals are what keep the modern economy going. They power cellphones, car engines, missile guidance systems, and much else. They are key components in fields as varied as agriculture, defense, electronics, transportation, energy, and manufacturing, among others. The need for them is projected to keep growing, according to a 2025 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
Their importance creates an important supply chain vulnerability that China can be counted on to exploit. For years, the Chinese Communist Party has successfully sought to dominate this key sector. And until recently, the U.S. has been snoozing — in former President Joe Biden’s case, literally — through the threat. The Trump administration has recognized the danger.
“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions,” Trump said during Operation Vault’s rollout, adding it is incumbent upon policymakers to “ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage. We are now creating this reserve so we don’t have any problems.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take Taiwan by 2027, according to U.S. military assessments. A conflict in the Taiwan Strait would instantly test America’s industrial resilience, and Beijing would not hesitate to use its minerals leverage against any country that resists its ambitions.
China has used its industrial dominance as a cudgel against the West, threatening everyone from tiny Lithuania to major corporations like the National Basketball Association. Without shoring up its capabilities quickly, the U.S. would find itself in a bind, with defense and other industries dependent on the nation seeking to supplant America as the world’s sole superpower.
The U.S. let its position deteriorate badly, and the question of who is to blame needs to be vitiated. But action is required for the future, and action is now being taken.
“Other presidents did a lot of talking,” Trump noted. “But they didn’t do anything.”
DEAR DEMOCRATS, ENFORCING IMMIGRATION LAW ISN’T FASCISM
He’s right. In 2017, one of Trump’s first initiatives was to sign Executive Order 13187, which directed federal agencies to strengthen mineral security. The Energy Act of 2020, signed into law during the last year of Trump’s first term, ordered the list of critical minerals to be reviewed every three years.
Precious time has been wasted. The largest police state in history has been preparing, marshaling its means to wage an economic war against America. It is past time for America to fight back. The critical mineral reserve is one way of doing so.