President Donald Trump wants $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Ukraine in exchange for continuing military aid.
Trump caused a leftist and corporate media meltdown by adding that Ukraine “may be Russian someday.”
“I want to have our money secured because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier. “They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.”
BREAKING: President Trump says Ukraine has agreed to repay the aid by giving the United States $500 billion in rare earth minerals.
“They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas. I want to have our money secured because we’re spending… pic.twitter.com/JUIcAa8AsS
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 11, 2025
Trump has said that Ukraine has “essentially agreed” to the deal.
“We are going to have all this money in there, and I say: ‘I want it back.’ And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” Trump said in the interview. “And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters that he is open to a resource deal.
“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelensky told Reuters. “We need to stop Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region [in] central Ukraine.”
Andrii Yermak, chief of staff to Zelenskyy, told the Associated Press, “We are interested to work, to develop, with our partners, first of all, with the United States.”
The Associated Press reports:
Rare earth elements are a set of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles.
It’s unclear if Trump is seeking specific elements in Ukraine, which also has other minerals to offer.
“It can be lithium. It can be titanium, uranium, many others,” Yermak said. “It’s a lot.”
China, Trump’s chief geopolitical adversary, is the world’s largest producer of rare earth elements. Both the U.S and Europe have sought to reduce their dependence on Beijing.
For Ukraine, such a deal would ensure that its biggest and most consequential ally doesn’t freeze military support. That would be devastating for the country, which has been at war for nearly three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
