Trump scores 'major win' as Apple commits $500M to US rare earth mineral production
By: Brooke Singman (Fox Business)
Expansion of manufacturing and new electronics recycling, too. It's not just a win, it's a two-fer.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
EXCLUSIVE: Apple is expected to announce a $500 million commitment to MP Materials — the only rare earth mine currently operating in the United States, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.
The agreement includes plans for Apple to purchase American-made rare earth magnets from MP Materials' Texas facility, marking a "major win" for the Trump administration, according to those familiar with the deal.
The Trump administration has made rare earth mining and bolstering domestic supply chains two of its top national security priorities.
Apple is expected to announce a $500 million commitment to MP Materials.
Apple's agreement with MP Materials is also expected to include the building of a new recycling facility in Mountain Pass, California, which will reprocess materials from used electronics to be used in future Apple products.
Sources told Fox News Digital that Apple and MP Materials will also build another factory in Fort Worth, Texas, to produce magnets that will be used in Apple products and other electronics around the globe.
"This is a huge win for the president, who has the foresight to make this issue a priority," a senior White House official told Fox News Digital.
"Apple deserves a lot of credit for stepping up," the official continued. "It's good for the country, good for American workers, and it'll prove to be good business, too."
The senior White House official added: "Other companies should take notice."
The agreement comes days after the Department of Defense announced that it is also taking a $400 million stake in MP Materials.
A view of the MP Materials rare earth open-pit mine in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. January 30, 2020. (Steve Marcus/Reuters / Reuters Photos)
The company called the government's investment a "transformational public-private partnership," and said the investment launched an effort to "accelerate the build-out of an end-to-end U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain and reduce foreign dependency."
Currently, China produces roughly 60% of the world's critical mineral supply, and processes up to 90%.
The deal also comes after President Donald Trump reached a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to resume trade of critical minerals after shipments were stopped earlier in 2025 following the White House's slew of tariffs against China and other countries.
Trump, in March, signed an executive order to increase American mineral production. The president said it is "imperative" for U.S. national security that the country take "immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production to the maximum possible extent."
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Step by step, Trump is rebuilding the blue collar economy. That's going to be a big win for almost everybody.
Trump takes credit for everything good and denies blame for all that is bad.
As a rule, multinational corporations do NOT make (implicitly long-term) strategic decisions based on the changing whims of a PotUS who will be gone in 3.5 years (if not sooner). It is unlikely that Apple's move is a result of Trump's actions.
So you are saying he's like every politician, ever.
Every republican president ever?
Obama: 'My responsibility'
‘I take responsibility for the decision’: Biden defends timing, handling of Afghanistan exit
Clinton: 'I Take Responsibility' For Benghazi Consulate Attack
Bill Clinton: I must take complete responsibility for all my actions, both public and private
Are you serious?
Bill Clinton: I must take complete responsibility for all my actions, both public and private
Citing Bill Clinton as a guy who takes responsibility, I guess not.
Lol.
No, but you are of course downplaying Trump ... trying to normalize him when he is THE outlier.
He may be an outlier, but he's certainly not one in the "takes credit for everything good and denies blame for all that is bad" category. The outliers would be those politicians who deviate from that practice.
I see Trump as a statistical outlier based on frequency and outrageousness of the credit/denial. Some politicians are outliers on the other side of the curve (the few statesmen we have); Trump is waaay out there on the outlier side which reflects non-statesmanlike behavior.
I can see that.
I would think a huge part of that is the communication tools at his disposal which were not available to previous presidents. It's tough to imagine what LBJ or Warren Harding might have done with a Twitter account, but it's tougher to imagine it would have gone well.
LBJ, Harding, Jackson, et. al. did not have Truth Social, etc. but they most definitely had the press. Harding also had radio. LBJ had that and TV.
So just imagine a former PotUS making public statements like this (below) and tell me that you believe it would not be headline news available to anyone who pays attention to politics:
Now tell me again that this is only extremely unusual public rhetoric from a sitting PotUS because Truth Social, etc. exist and that other PotUS' with something like Truth Social might have publicly stated something like this.
If any previous president had written that it would have been talked about, negatively, for years, until the end of their term.
When Trump does shit like this his defenders say everybody did it, when he does something they like they say he is uniquely great. Their bs is so transparent but there is no mechanism in this society to hold them to account.
It would have been talked about well past the end of their term.
yep
I have incorporated this phenomenon of human behavior into my expectations. It no longer surprises me any more than a cult surprises me.
Just read that pretending you did not know who wrote it. I would think the author was mentally ill.
Trump has, for years , made unhinged offensive "truths" on national holidays, including the religious holidays of Easter and Christmas. His base has never batted an eye over this insanity. Trump posts numerous "truths" every day, and every day there is at least one that is completely detached from reality.
I am a student of history and presidential history and there has never been anything like this, and I believe historians will condemn this behavior, but at that stage who will care anymore?
The president of the United States posted this on his personal social media.
Let them name one other president in history who did something like this.
None of which were instantaneous forms of communication. Television and radio still required planning and has limited capacity. It's not like they could post unfiltered stream of consciousness every few minutes.
Well, that's not what I said. So maybe read more carefully before you try to pick yet another fight with someone who has already agreed with you.
You are grasping at straws. Instantaneous is not required. If any former PotUS had said or written anything like that in public, it would be known. We have the benefit of history and I challenge you to find any public statement by any other PotUS that even comes close to the absurdity of Trump.
Good grief man, this is ridiculous. Do you or do you not recognize that no prior PotUS (other than Trump) has ever publicly stated anything as unpresidential, irrational, and dishonest as the @realDonaldTrump post I provided as an example? That Trump is the extreme outlier when it comes to vulgar, untruthful, conspiratorial, irrational public ramblings that are embarrassingly unpresidential.
Trump has a 10-year-old mentality in a 79-year-old brain.
Do you or do you not recognize that the available media of the time would have communicated such public ramblings?
So you're claiming the quote is not accurate?
Radio and television are not instantaneous???? So much for Roosevelt's fireside chats.
I'm claiming you are telling on yourself for claiming democratic presidents don't take credit for things that are good and deny responsibility for things that are bad. It deserves as much scorn and mockery as Justice Barrett nuking Justice Jackson's dishonest idiocy on the bench last month.
Not at all. They take planning, scheduling, and advance notice. You just don't wake up at 3am, go on television, shout "covfeve" and go back to bed.
Exactly the point. Are you suggesting those were spontaneous? They were planned well in advance. They were announced ahead of time. They were rehearsed.
When mass communication is more difficult to orchestrate, it's more valuable and it forces people to be more careful with it. If you say something idiotic, you don't have the ability to undo it or change the subject until you reorganize another event. You can't just tweet about something else to distract everybody.
Uh no. I provided specific examples of democratic presidents taking responsibility for their action(s). Something you claimed they didn't do.
Now it is up to you to show the same with republican presidents up to and including the current one.
Again, I can only ask are you serious? You really are going to sit here and claim to be unaware of Democratic presidents denying responsibility for things that are bad and taking credit for things that are good? You flush Biden blaming Trump for the Afghan withdrawal down your memory hole? Refusing to take responsibility for the migrant invasion that Trump solved with a few executive orders? Ring a bell? At all?
I can't fathom shilling for a political party to that extent. Enjoy it.
is up to you to show the same with republican presidents up to and including the current one
No, it's not. Since I've haven't sold my integrity to shill for a party, I stated in my original post that all politicians deny responsibility for things thats are bad and take credit for things that are good.
Why not? You shill for the corrupt leader of the political party.
Do you recognize that FDR, armed with a 'Truth Social', would never emit such unpresidential, rambling, blatantly dishonest, conspiratorial, hate-filled, incoherent crap that we typically see from Trump as typified by the quote I provided @2.1.7?
And that this is not only extremely likely to be true for FDR but for every other PotUS in our history.
You seem to be arguing that it is okay/understandable for Trump to produce unpresidential crap because Truth Social makes it so easy for him to ramble on.
If you were PotUS armed with Truth Social (or equivalent) can you imagine yourself ever —under any circumstances— producing idiotic rhetoric like Trump produces? The medium is right at your fingertips, so what is stopping you? I would suggest that what would stop you is a combination of intelligence, respect for the office and the nation, and acceptance of the responsibility of the office.
Tig, they know and they dont care.
Off and on for years good intentioned people have said we need to all come together and find common ground.
There is no common ground when it comes to Trumps fitness for office.
No one even talks about his J6 related crimes any more. Thats how bad things have gotten.
YOu should look up what that word means. I have no problem criticizing Trump. I literally just agreed that he doesn't take responsibility for things that are bad and takes credit for things that are good. I didn't vote for him.
Compare that to your record of always supporting your party's talking points, no matter how patently absurd.
When are you going to start? We're not going to live forever you know.
I don't have a problem with legitimate criticisms of Trump. It's the hysterical ones based on made up lies that advocate for throwing the constitution out the window to "get him" at all costs that I take issue with. That probably colors your impression of my criticisms of Trump.
Do you understand what the phrase "I can see that" means? Are you able to comprehend the concept of agreement?
Do you recognize that societal norms were so different back then as to be unrecognizable from today? Are you really attempting to make a like for like comparison to a president who was elected during prohibition? Can you imagine FDR's campaign using a phrase like "It's the economy, stupid"? Social acceptance has changed.
Yes, Trump is a statistical outlier in the nature of the frequency and bellicosity of the comments he makes. Please notice, I have agreed with you again. We will now enter an intellectual part of the conversation where we discuss how and why he has been able to become POTUS while engaging in this behavior. If you can handle that (warning, more than two variables will be involved), great. If not, go bother somebody else.
Trump is able to thrive on this behavior because of a perfect storm of factors, including the communication tools at his disposal, the political climate in our country (which his opponents have absolutely helped create), the failing public education system in America (which his opponents also helped create), and the prevailing societal acceptance of speech previously considered outrageous and unacceptable.
In case you missed it, times are different now. We live in a country that tried to cancel "Baby It's Cold Outside" while the #1 pop hit was "Wet Ass Pussy". What constitutes acceptable behavior has changed. We live in a time with a social platform for homemade pornography hosts 4.2 million creators and generates $10 billion in annual revenue. Math break for you.... 4.2 million....that is more than 1% of Americans.... proudly posting nude images or videos of themselves for the entire world to see. Still wanna compare this to FDR?
Trump is able to say the shit he says and post the shit he does because mass communication is now a flood that has long ago swept over the banks of the river. There are no boundaries anymore, the news cycle is measured in hours instead of months, and he has the ability to change the focus from minute to minute. Anything that looks like it's going to bite him can simply be washed away within minutes by a new tweet about some other shiny object.
There have been three presidents since social media began on a large scale. Trump is the only one of the three that posts unhinged ,often incoherent, content DAILY.
Why would that be? The MAGA/Trump base is ignorant, exists in an echo chamber , and is awash in conspiracy theories. THAT is why he does it.
Show us the part of this paragraph that says it is the wrong thing for Trump to do, not whether or not he is able to.
Is flash mob shoplifting ok because we live in a different era than 30 years ago?
Yes. I DO expect you to support your own claim. [deleted][✘]
TBF, it's highly unlikely Biden could have managed a tweet, so I'm not sure he counts.
Because he likes being the center of attention and he can get away with it.
The irony here is unbelievable and hilarious. You're speaking as an enthusiastic member of a group infamous for trying to suppress any speech they dislike, using violence if they think it's necessary. The same group is notorious for their inability to do basic math or science, a nearly complete lack of understanding of basic economics, and a very tenuous grasp on history.
Pot, meet kettle.
What he's doing is not a crime unlike shoplifting. Whether it is "right" or "wrong" or somewhere in between is going to be in the eye of the beholder.
As I think I've said before, I believe Trump's eagerness to antagonize half of the country to be his greatest failing as a president. I very much wish he behaved differently.
Is it morally wrong to say things that most people understand to be banter and don't take seriously? In most cases, no. His being the POTUS should generate a greater sense of decorum and an understanding that his words now weigh more than they did when he was a private citizen.
In any case, I have absolutely zero control over what he says, posts or tweets. Given that reality, it would be ridiculous to allow myself to be bothered by those things.
I did not ask for your opinion on how and why he is PotUS. I have replied to your bizarre attempt to excuse Trump's behavior by arguing that other PotUS' did not have their own social media site.
It is irrelevant that Trump's word's can go out immediately. This is a question of judgment and character on Trump's part. I am claiming that it is extremely unlikely that any other PotUS (even if armed with their own social media site) would never publicly engage in such unpresidential, dishonest, vulgar, etc. fashion.
You agree that Trump is an outlier but then immediately offer an excuse (i.e. none of the other PotUS' had an immediate outlet ....). That excuse is what I challenged and made my argument. You have yet to rebut my argument and instead want to discuss how times are different. Deflection.
There is no excuse for Trump's behavior. There is no justification for it. It is unpresidential and embarrassing for this nation.
I don't give a shit. You don't get to control the conversation.
You have made that up on your own. Again. Not every comment that does not actively condemn Trump is an excuse. Seriously. WTF.
It's absolutely not. That's just an asinine rationalization so you can keep gnawing on your Trump-hatred bone.
I've agreed twice now that Trump is unusual in this regard. And given numerous reasons that I believe contribute to the situation. You're dogged refusal to even consider an intellectual discussion on the matter is disappointing.
So I agree, but not completely enough to meet your satisfaction. That's how religious zealots talk. Well, I also don't give a shit about your purity tests.
So is everyone supposed to stand at attention and salute something when they recite this creed? Or are they kneeling? Is it recited before meals? How does this liturgy work, exactly?
When you respond to my post with factors that have no bearing on the question asked, I will object to the dishonesty. I do not give a shit if that is a problem for you or not.
Whether instantaneous or through the press, Trump intended his words for public consumption. You trying to make excuses for him based on 'instantaneous' is pathetic.
Yeah: you agree that Trump is an outlier (more than that, he is THE outlier) and then immediately make excuses for him.
You agree and then immediately soften your agreement. Kind of like agreeing that Manson was a brutal killer (which, in this example, would have been the point that was made) but then discussing how he was probably mentally unstable and could not help himself. There is no excuse for a PotUS putting forth public crap like I quoted @2.1.7:
'Trump should not do this ... however...' Bullshit!
Well said
[deleted][✘]
I think it is more of a win for Apple! Apple is a fantastic company. However lately the stock has been doing badly. Why? Because they do most of their manufacturing in China— and heavy tariffs would really hurt them.
The obvious way to avoid that of course would be to build factories in the U.S. but A-it would take a while till they’re up & running.
But more importantly, American wages would be considerably higher than those in China— so in order to make a profit the price of a U.S. made iPhone would cost $thousands!
So what to do? Well. Apple could do a lot of manufacturing in the U.S.! While the cost of manufacturing tech in the US would be much too high…Apple could buy another business in the US to please Trump— why not MP?
P.S: I’ve owned MP stock for quite a while. In fact for most of that time they hadn’t even been doing any mining— they just owned the land!
I sold covered calls on the share, kept bringing in income!
Over time I let it almost all get called away. (Now have only 100 shares— on paper there ‘s a big profit. Would like to sell them but wouldn’t do it now without buying back the Call but the premium is now ridiculous).
Then why does Apple continue to design hardware and develop software in Cupertino, CA? Product development and support really is a labor intensive activity; there are an estimated 12,000 employees at the Cupertino campus. Why are all of Apple's data centers located in the US? Those are extraordinarily expensive operations to maintain in the US.
Apple takes credit for creating 2 million jobs in the US. Hasn't Apple destroyed the high wages argument with its own marketing?
Is Tim Cook really worried he'll have to pay US robots higher wages?
Well, it certainly isn't a result of anything the worthless Dems did or didn't do
Might be because the Apple management knows the progressives won't be in a position to fuck it up anytime soon.
I’d bet if cackles won apple would not have made this commitment.
Actually it’s because Tim Cook is one smart guy and figured out a way to partially deal with the enormous problem that would be caused by huge. tariffs.
(Starting another, none high tech business in the U.S. is a brilliant idea— I wouldn’t have thought of it!)
But I suppose that’s why Tim Cook is the CEO of a major corporation— and I’m not!
(LOL)
Apple did not make a political decision. They made a business decision.
Trump has never in his life accepted responsibility for anything "bad". That is because he has been mentally ill for decades. The right always says he's just like every other politician. They lie to us as they lie to themselves.