WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance delivered a blunt warning — and a bold plan — at the US-hosted Critical Minerals Ministerial Wednesday, declaring the global market for key minerals is “failing” and leaving America and its allies dangerously exposed.
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Vance argued that modern industries — from missile defense to AI to energy — now depend on critical minerals just as much as oil.
However, the veep said foreign market manipulation, price dumping, and unstable supply chains have crushed domestic investment and left America reliant on adversarial producers — an allusion to China.
“Asset and commodity prices are persistently depressed, driven downward by forces beyond any individual country’s control, ” said Vance, calling the current system “distorted beyond recognition.”
In response, the Trump administration is launching “Project Vault,” America’s first-ever national critical minerals stockpile.
The strategy proposes a preferential trade zone among allied nations, designed to stabilize prices, block the flood of foreign products and guarantee secure access to essential materials.
Vance pitched the effort as both an economic and national security mission — and urged allies to join quickly.
