The United States is in a new “Space Race” that may be more important than the first one. This time, the race is against China to get more rare earth minerals. Glenn explains why these minerals are so crucial for our future as technology and artificial intelligence grows in complexity, as well as how the trade war between Trump and China might go. Plus, Glenn discusses how we got here in the first place: addicted to buying Chinese goods with an inflated dollar.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: China is hitting back. They are dumping our -- our T-bills. Our Treasury bills. Taiwan stocks, wobbling. Consumers, people like you and me, bracing for higher prices. University of Michigan survey says inflation fears are spiking. It's Nixon. This is Nixon.
But take a step back. Trump is not stirring the pot. What Nixon did was he took us off the gold standard, so we could spend more money.
And to make us -- this is what he promised the world, that he would make us consumers, not producers.
So we would consume, what everybody else was producing.
So in a way, that was his plan. And he got it! But it cracked the system for, you know, the average person.
Nixon's tariffs lasted four months, it didn't fix the core. Trump is going bigger and bolder. He says, he will bring jobs home.
Could it backfire?
Yeah. Yeah. Tariffs might add another one to 2 percent to prices. Maybe three to five on your Walmart card. Because everything from Walmart is coming from China.
The Peterson Institute, by the way, has run the numbers. Higher yields could strain our 2 trillion-dollar deficit. Make mortgage prices higher.
The retaliation from China is real. And China is not blinking, and neither are we!
Now, do we stumble into recession. Stagflation like the '70s? I don't know. In the '70s, real wages fell 5 percent in a year.
Here's the flip side. If Trump pulls this off, if we start setting things right, where we mean what we say, and we mean what we say, we get everything under control. We're not just spending. And we have no real assets that we actually are sitting on.
If wages rise, one to 2 percent, like the IMF predicts. If supply chains come home, we could see something new. Not a return to 1971. But a system where the middle class isn't crushed, where houses don't cost your soul.
And where the top 1 percent don't control almost everything. Even Bernie Sanders. Would agree with this.
But, no, no, no, no. But he's not. He's busy with Coachella. Get to that here in a second. Here's the thing, history is a very tough teacher. Nixon's shock showed good intentions and sparked long fires. Inequality. Debt. A hallowed out heartland.
This is a very big stakes game. But what has a higher cost is not trying to fix the system.
That's a slow bleed, and we're almost out of blood. It's been 50 years to prove the point. This doesn't work.
This system is broken. But it's not dead. Imagine a world where our children's jobs actually pay enough, where America is not just buying, but it's building.
That's the gamble. And that is the next generation's new American dream. So we're at a crossroads like we were in 1971.
Hopefully, we're wiser. Trump is not Nixon. He has a history map. Scars and all.
Will he fix what is broke? I don't know.
Things are getting a little dangerous.
And tough. This is where the big boys play. This is why Trump earns the big money, even though he doesn't actually take a paycheck for any of this.
This, we're playing the highest steaks of a game.
Here's the latest from China.
And I don't know how many people are really focusing on this.
But this is the ball game.
China now says that they're going to cut us off on rare earth minerals.
Now, we have plenty of rare earth minerals.
There is a new space race. Do you remember when JFK said this?
VOICE: We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
GLENN: Apparently, even harder than saying decade, not decade.
Anyway, I digress.
So this was really important, because it was a space race. This would change the world. Whoever got to space first, got to the moon first, would change the world.
But there's a new race, and it is just as game-changing. This one is even more critical.
And that is the race for rare earth minerals. The tiny elements that power everything, in our future.
Right now, China has just pulled a giant gun, and they're holding it to our head.
They are threatening to cut off all exports of rare earth minerals.
And if we don't act, with a JFK kind of moon shot, we will lose the AI race. We will lose quantum computing race.
We will lose every technological leap, that is just over the horizon. Rare earth minerals are not just elements in rocks in the ground. They are the back bone to our modern world. Everything from high-tech, weaponry, that will defend our skies, to the smartphones. That are in your pocket.
To the wind turbine. Eye sores. That the left loves so much. And mean nothing. And the quantum computers, that will redefine what is possible.
Here's the deal: In 2024, we produced 45,000 metric tons of rare earth oxide concentrate from the US. Mostly in the mountain pass in California.
Sounds great. But we only refined about 6500 metric tons of usable material.
66 thousand -- yeah. 6,600 metric tons is our demand every year.
So we're close, and yet so far away. Because 70 percent of what we need still comes from China. And Beijing knows this. And this month, they've halted all exports.
Saying, it's in their national interest to stop.
We knew this was coming. We've talked about this for a long time. Do not be held hostage.
They are weaponizing the rare earth minerals. So what's at stake, and what do we do?
We'll do that in 60 seconds. First, out on the wind rustled prairies can still exist in this country, between the veins and the arteries of American cities and towns, and even just some wild spots in the roads.
They still exist. The men and women who have always made sure that America's supper was waiting for them on the table. They're our farmers and our ranchers, and every day through toil and sweat, they raise the cattle and the pigs and the chickens. And all of the food that we have. So you don't have to.
So I don't have to. So we can go to the grocery store, and fill our baskets.
But every year, there are fewer and fewer of them.
Meat gets shipped in from overseas. Giant meat packing plants drive the small farms and the small ranches out of business.
But don't worry, Bill Gates is here. And Good Ranchers are here.
They are working to change it. They sourced 100 percent of their meat from American farms and ranches. Just real beef, real chicken, real pork.
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So when you subscribe to Good Ranchers. You are putting your money behind American agriculture.
I want you to GoodRanchers.com. Subscribe and get your choice of protein for a year. Stand with American ranchers and farmers. We need these guys to survive.
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GLENN: Okay. So everything we need, batteries for our cars. Chips. Everything that we need for quantum computing for AI, et cetera, et cetera. It comes from rare earth minerals. China now produces 270,000 metric tons a year.
That's 70 percent of what the globe consumes every year. We're second at 45,000 tons.
But we're at the mercy of their refining. It's like we have lots of oil. But no refineries.
I can't just pour raw barrels of oil into my car. I need somebody to refine it.
And we don't make refineries. Here is the danger of globalism. We gambled on a world where everybody plays fair. Where supply chains are just a matter of efficiency. But globalism has left us exposed.
And we are -- we are handing all of the power over to China, and that power is the power to choke us to death.
It was a reckless bet. We all knew this was bad. We have -- we have everything that we need. Mountain Pass in California. Bear Lodge in Wyoming. Round Top in Texas.
We have the talent. MP Materials, Rare Element Resources, already stepping up. MP Materials invested $2 billion to get 6500 metric tons refined output. They're ramping up. Rare Elements Resources says with $500 million, they could have a full-scale plant running in 18 months. We have all of the pieces we need. We just need the will.
Experts estimate ten to $15 billion, to make sure that our full domestic supply chain, refining plants. Alloyed production. Magnet factories. Everything. Everything is done here.
And for the money that it would be a rounding error in the federal budget. We spend twice that on stupid crap, every year.
If we can fund the carbon study, you know, carbon footprint studies on I don't know. Turtles. And elves. I think we could probably fund this.
Because the time line is so important. If we use the mandate that we found in November, we could be self-sufficient in five years!
In five years, the whole world will be different.
Without a push from the federal government, we're looking at eight to ten years, and that's way too late. We lose. We lose.
This is about the future right now.
We need somebody, and President Trump to stand up. And define what is important to our future. What are the important things that we have to do, and we have to do right now?
Because jobs coming back, is not enough. The right jobs, have to be here.
