What Are You Going To Do About It, President Soy Boy

Some of it is above my pay grade, but successive administrations have, in various ways, continued to hand China all the cards, while, in various ways, stamping their little feet louder and louder each time that became apparent. Doing something other than getting mad rarely occurred.

Stocks tied to rare earth minerals jumped Friday after President Donald Trump threatened countermeasures against China, accusing Beijing of holding the world “captive” over the metals.

“I will be forced, as President of the United States of America, to financially counter their move,” Trump said on his social media plaftorm Truth Social.

“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” the president said. “There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.”

China this week imposed more stringent export controls on rare earths, a subset of critical minerals that are crucial inputs for U.S. weapons platforms, robotics, electric vehicles, and electronics among other applications. Beijing dominates the global supply chain for rare earths and the U.S. is dependent on imports from China.

Now about those soybean purchases...