Trump Tariffed Canada's Critical Minerals. He Forgot They Build Every American Weapon.

By The Decision Room

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A single American F-35 fighter jet contains over 900 pounds of rare earth materials. A Virginia-class submarine needs about 9,200 pounds. A Navy destroyer, around 5,200. By the Pentagon's own accounting, rare earths are embedded in 80,000+ components across nearly 1,900 U.S. weapons systems. So where do those materials come from? Overwhelmingly — China. The country the entire U.S. military is built to deter also controls the materials it can't be built without. China holds ~70% of rare earth mining, but more than 90% of processing — and a near-monopoly on the heavy rare earths (dysprosium, terbium) needed for F-35 magnets. Plus ~98% of gallium and dominance of germanium and antimony. In April 2025, China weaponized it — imposing export controls in retaliation for Trump's tariffs. By December 2025, companies tied to the U.S. military could be denied export licenses entirely. And here's the part that's hard to understand. The one friendly country with some of the largest untapped rare

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