Remarks transcript, Aug 7, 2026 (Donald Trump)

That's a very nice song. I love that song Because that means you won, basically. [ Laughter ] If we didn't, we wouldn't hear that song very much.

But I want to thank everybody. Special people—people that built our country are here. And you really haven't—I was just looking at my notes, and I could do this one without any notes, because there's great love for what you do. And I think you haven't been treated well for many years, but you're making up for it now. You're really making up for it now.

So it's an honor. And I'm delighted to be here at the Department of State to announce some of the largest ever investments in American mining. Great—a great thing mining is.

We're putting our miners back to work, and we're reclaiming America's rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world, which is what we are. People just didn't know that for a while.

I want to thank our great Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for hosting us.

It's a beautiful building by—you know, I look at—the President's allowed to remove things from any building—[ laughter ]—and I'm liking the chandeliers. I really—I like those Corinthian columns, but I don't know, cutting them out would be not good. [ Laughter ] Those are beautiful columns.

But I'm allowed to do it. Every once in a while, I'll come in here and grab a painting and put it at the Oval Office, right? [ Laughter ] But not too much.

But I want to thank Marco. I want to thank Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum, who's done a fantastic job; Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, likewise; and as well as Executive Director of the National Energy Dominance Council, Jarrod Agen. Thank you, Jarrod. And thank you all.

I love that: the Dominance Council. I've never heard that one before. It's—that's a hell of a name. Where's Jarrod? Where's Jarrod?

Right there.

Right there.

Hi, Jarrod. It's—I like that. Did you make up that? Did you come up with that name?

That's all you, sir. You came up with that one. [ Laughter ]

Oh, that's—[ laughter ]—I think it's pretty good.

Thanks as well to the leaders of many of America's great mining companies who are here, and educational institutions are also joining us today.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, America won our political independence in the Revolutionary War. In my first term, we secured our energy independence. And now, in my second term, we're achieving our economic independence, ensuring that America is never again reliant on hostile foreign nations for the resources our country needs to dominate in the future, and we have plenty of those resources.

Critical minerals are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles, and we want these essential products to be mined, refined, and made right here in the U.S.A. with the American skill and American hands. We have better skill and we have better hands than anybody in the world.

For decades, politicians let other countries steal our mines and mining jobs. They'd close up mines. They'd buy a mine and close it because it was good for them and put American producers out of business.

The United States lost more than 3,400 mines—can you imagine? Three thousand four hundred. I thought they were going to say "miners" or "jobs." It's mines. Three thousand four hundred mines over the past 3 decades. That's sad. But now they're coming back, and they're coming back fast.

They're—many of those mines are being reopened, and a lot of new mines are being built.

Over the past 18 months, our administration has signed or approved more than 160 minerals deals worth nearly $40 billion. And today the United States is opening up new mines at the fastest pace since the 1950s. There's never—nobody's seen anything like it. And that goes for auto plants too and AI and so many other kinds of plants.

We have nine—think of this: We have, in a short period of time—a year and a half—and it's—the numbers are for the first 12 months, actually, but figure a year and a half. We have $19.2 trillion being invested. The previous administration had much less than $1 trillion in 4 years. We have 19.2 in, actually, 12 months, but we'll add something to it. So it's now going to be over $20 trillion.

And by the way, no country ever in history has done anywhere near that number. We're five to six times higher than certain of our competitors—from very successful competitors, but we're much higher. Nobody's seen what's happening today in our country—nobody has seen anything like it. And hopefully, you'll see it again, but only for us. I think it's going to be hard to match, however.

Today, the United States is opening new mines at the fastest pace, and we opened the first American rare earth mine in more than 70 years. What's that all about, Marco?

We've announced the construction of the first new aluminum smelter since 1980. It's going to be a big one. I mean, if it's the same one, building a massive, beautiful job-producing smelter in Oklahoma.

I love Oklahoma because they have 77 counties; I won all 77 three times. Right? [ Laughter ] You know, he's looking—he—right? Nobody's—you know who second was? Ronald Reagan, 56. That's pretty good, right? [ Laughter ] I like Oklahoma.

We authorized deep-sea mining to unlock vast untapped resources off our coasts, and we're rebuilding the national defense stockpile and investing more than $12 billion in a brand-new strategic mineral reserve.

And we're protecting American workers with historic tariffs on foreign copper, aluminum, steel so that our people are protected.

And the tariffs are what made this so successful, the proper use of tariffs. But they're really what made this so successful.

You've probably heard me during my campaign. I used to say, "The word 'tariff' is my favorite word." And the fake news—see them back there? They're all back there. [ Laughter ] And they'd say: "What a terrible thing to say. What about 'God,' 'wife,' 'country,' 'love'?" I said, "It's all right." So I made it my fifth-favorite word. [ Laughter ] Now I have no problem.

Oh, they hit me hard when I said "tariff" was my alltime favorite word. It didn't play well, but it's a solid number five, and now I'm okay. [ Laughter ]

But American miners have never had a greater champion in the White House than President Donald Trump. And before I took office, Federal mining permits took 3, 4, or even 5 years. Now they take as little as 25 days. So we went from 5 years for approvals to get them, and nobody was doing it anyway. Took too long and just wasn't working. So now we go from 5 years to 25 days for approval.

Under the "Great Big Beautiful Bill," we secured an unprecedented $100 billion to underwrite critical investments in our mineral supply. And for the first time ever, we are even making direct equity investments in critical mineral production.

Last July, the Department of War took a $400 million stake in MP Materials, which is already worth nearly $1.2 billion. It's gone up greatly in value.

I did one of those too, but not quite in the same business: Intel. We had a problem with Intel, and we settled the problem. They gave us 10 percent of the company. That was worth $12 billion. And since we had the company, the—you saw, you probably been watching, the stock has gone up many, many times. Just about number one.

And we made $82 billion. Do I get credit for that? No. Did anybody say, "Great job"? And, by the way, it's for the country. It's not for me. [ Laughter ] It's for the country. I have to be very plain about that.

But no, we've made about $80—Howard, it's pretty close to $80 billion. A profit of $80 billion by helping the company out. We're doing it a lot, actually. We're doing it a lot.

Today we're taking another historic action toward the future of American mining. For years, mining schools and colleges that are essential to training the future leaders of this industry have been absolutely and sadly disappearing.

Accredited mining programs in the United States now graduate less than 170 mining engineers each year, while China graduates more than 3,000. And half of our current mining workforce is set to retire within the next 3 years. Wow.

That's why my administration is making an unprecedented financial commitment to our Nation's mining schools. It's going to keep us nice and young and vibrant.

The schools came to us seeking $10 million per year in funding. Instead, I'm thrilled to announce that we're delivering $100 million to train the next generation of American miners. And you have a lot of you are in the room right now.

And you know, I'm not doing that because I'm a nice person; I'm doing that because it's great for the country. It's great for the country, and it also helps a lot of people. And they want to mine.

You know, I've seen it, and we had a little campaign about—against somebody named Hillary Clinton, and she wanted the miners of West Virginia to learn how to make chips—little, tiny chips with their big, strong hands. [ Laughter ] And they were not—I won by 55 points. [ Laughter ] They were not thrilled. They didn't want to be doing—they wanted to be in the mines. That's what they want to do. They want—they don't want to do anything else.

I remember that. It was so unbelievable. It was very, very good for me, I tell you what. She didn't get that—we did very well with that kind of thinking.

But we're also making major grants to the Colorado School of Mines, the South Dakota School of Mines, and the Johns Hopkins-RTX partnership, and together those grants are worth $81 million. Going to train people, work with people, and we're going to put you right back on the front pages. That's what you have to be.

In addition, today my administration is announcing a series of historic mining projects worth $3 billion, which will create thousands of jobs and promote our economic stability and security.

The Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital is signing a massive $1.4 billion loan agreement with Sila Nanotechnologies to build a next-generation battery facility in Washington State using what we have right under our feet.

The Export-Import Bank is working to provide more than $1 billion to finance the Ivanhoe Electric's Santa Cruz Copper Project in Arizona, one of the biggest anywhere in the world.

The EXIM Bank is launching the Alabama graphite project, a $25 million investment, as well as the Fort Cady Integrated Boron Facility in Southern California. And it's going to be something.

We broke out—we broke through the environmental disasters. You had environmental people. You know, look, I'm an environmental person, believe it or not. But you had people that were just stopping it. They were using the environment to stop all of these things.

The Department of War is investing $400 million to expand production of scandium, one of the world's most valuable aerospace and defense materials, in Australia. The Department of War is also investing $150 million with Niron Magnetics in Minnesota—Minnesota, wow. What the hell happened to Minnesota? [ Laughter ] The Governor is totally corrupt, but we won't talk about that now. That's for another day. Corrupt and incompetent, a bad combination—to build rare earth magnets. Magnets. You've got to go with magnets. That's a good one. Everybody should go for magnets. They're really badly needed.

And Global Advanced Metals will build a major new factory in Southeastern Pennsylvania to support cutting-edge defense and aerospace systems.

Together, we're reawakening the spirit of the gold rush, the prospectors, and the great pioneers of this country—people who built the United States of America. And, very simply, we're making mining great again. And the United States is doing better than it's ever done—maybe ever done.

So I just want to thank you. And I'll now ask Secretary Rubio to say a few words, and then we'll hear from some of the wonderful people we have up here: Secretary Burgum—in this order; Secretary Lutnick; executive director of the University of Arizona School of Mining and Engineering and Minerals, Kray Luxbacher; president of Colorado School of Mines, Paul Johnson; CEO of MP Materials, Jim Litinsky, who I know your brother. He's a nice guy, by the way. I assume it's your brother. Where is—right?

Yes.

That's right. It—Andy.

Yes.

Your brother?

Yes.

Okay. Well, he's a smart guy, and so are you.

Thank you.

And president of Resolution Copper, Vicky Peacey.

So we'll go to—I didn't know I was going to have so many people. I'll be here all day. [ Laughter ] If you could go quickly, I would appreciate it, because we have a war to prosecute. Okay? [ Laughter ] That's my excuse for getting out of here a little bit early.

But I've done my thing only in the sense that we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars in bringing your industry back. And we need your industry. We're not doing you favors; we're doing ourself favors. We need your industry. People wouldn't talk about it, but we do indeed.

Marco, please.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for coming to the State Department. We like this room a lot too, and obviously, don't look back. There's a painting up here. Just don't look—[ laughter ].

Uh-oh. [ Laughter ]

I like that. That's a good one. [ Laughter ] I'm taking it with me. [ Laughter ]

I shouldn't have said anything.

But anyway, Mr. President, thank you for being here. Thank you for your leadership on this topic. It's a challenge we face in this domain that actually goes to the very survival of the country. And thank you for giving it a priority in your presidency.

This has been going on for 25 years. We've been walking away from the importance of this, and now we're trying to make up for 25 or 30 years of mistakes. Under your Presidency—so we appreciate your Presidency valuing this when other Presidents did not.

There's still a lot of work left to do, but we at the State Department are willing to utilize our unmatched global presence, our presence all over the world, to ensure that we're working on this. And we're committed to working with industry, with universities, with all the elements of our national power to bring this about.

And so thank you, Mr. President, for prioritizing this, and I think we all look forward to working not just nationally but with our allies around the world to ensure that we have supply chains that are diversified and reliable, and no country can ever hold this over our head and threaten us in the future.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marco, very much. Thank you. Doing a fantastic job too. I will tell you that.

Doug.

Well, sir, today is a day of gratitude, and we're grateful, first of all, to have a President that understands the importance of this industry and understand that our future depends on restoring American mining.

And I'm also grateful that we've got students, educators, and industry leaders together in this room for the first time, we think, in the history that any President has called this group together. So, again, thank you all for being here for this historic day.

This industry has the—is poised to do the exactly same thing: to revive itself and become a world leader. And it's going to be powered by the next generation of American entrepreneurs, engineers, geologists, and skilled miners.

And so, President Trump, this group is here. You've proven that we can drill, baby, drill. This group is to—here to prove that we can mine, baby, mine. And with—to supporting that, we're going to map, baby, map. And we're going to put American mining back on the map.

So thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. And it's something that we maybe should say: We do more oil right now than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined, and that's not including Venezuela, where we're getting a lot of oil. And good relationship we have with them too. But a lot of oil. But we do—without even including Venezuela, we're doing more oil than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. Isn't that something? That's a big difference.

Howard, please.

So, let's be clear: Critical mineral is more than an economic issue; they're national security issue. If we want to lead in advanced manufacturing, AI, semiconductors, energy defense, we can't depend on our foreign adversaries for the materials that underpin our industries. We just can't.

And that's why the President tasked us to rebuild the supply chain and make it a top priority of his administration and my department.

So our objective is very simple: We're going to mine here, we're going to process here, we're going to refine here, we're going to manufacture here, and we're going to create those American jobs right here.

So our section 232 tariffs—right?—where we strengthened our steel, our aluminum, and our copper industries. And let's just talk about what that's created.

So I have Jesse Gary on my left. I went down to visit his aluminum smelter, and he's building the one in Oklahoma.

Oh.

Jesse's doing the one in Oklahoma, where he's going to double the aluminum production by the United States of America.

That's great.

So that's pretty amazing.

It's going to be a great success.

Right?

Then, of course, we're doing steel in Alabama.

I mean, these are the first types of smelters and furnaces that America's had in 40 or 50 years, and it's only because of your leadership and the 232 tariffs, which you have been driving.

So the CHIPS program—right?—we gave Korea Zinc $7.4 billion to build a critical mineral smelter right here in the United States; Vulcan Elements $1.4 billion, also to build right here in the United States. Right?

So we're going to secure reliable supply. We're going to strengthen our global partnerships. Right? We're going to back American companies. And we're going to make sure the United States, not our adversaries, controls the supply chains of power and critical minerals for our country and our future.

The bottom line: We need to control our supply chain. And under your leadership, we are executing on that, and it is coming.

We will mine, we will process, we will refine right here in America under the Trump Presidency.

Thank you. Thank you, Howard, very much.

And Kray. Where is Kray?

Kray Luxbacher, Gregory H. and Lisa S. Boyce Leadership Chair of the Mining and Geological Engineering Department, University of Arizona . I'm here, sir.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Mr. President, first I want to thank you. This is a historic investment in American mining engineering schools, and we're really grateful.

I also want to say thank you for what you've already done towards accelerating permitting for mining in the United States. It's really been unbelievable. And you've created pathways for industry.

And now, in order to achieve American mineral dominance, we really need technology and talent. And your American mining schools are ready to get to work. So thank you.

Good. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Please

Sure.

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you so much for your leadership.

I think the message of the day is we need to mine, refine, and make things in America. And I'm pleased to report to you, actually, this has been—because this has been a call to action from—from you for a long time, to make magnets—I'm pleased to show you, actually, these are magnets that we made at MP for GM.

Good.

These magnets were mined and refined in the State of California and made in the State of Texas. One hundred percent American made.

And thanks to your leadership, we are scaling up that facility. We're going to triple the capacity.

So we're delivering magnets to GM today. Next year, we'll be delivering magnetics to Apple, and then, from there, we're going to 10x our capacity as a result of our public-private partnership together. We're going to increase capacity for American industry, which, as you mentioned earlier, is going to be—the American taxpayer has already benefited. It will be great for national security. It's really a win-win-win, sir.

And lastly, that facility is going to be north of a billion dollars of investment and a couple thousand jobs. So we really are making a lot of progress thanks to your leadership. So I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you very much, Jim. Great job. That's so important what you're doing. Very, very important.

Thank you, sir.

Those are the ones I'd be looking at if I were in your world.

Thank you, sir.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Is Paul Johnson right here? Right?

Yes, Mr. President, I'm here.

Hi, Paul.

Mr. President, I'm Paul Johnson, president, Colorado School of Mines. We are the number-one-ranked program in the world. We're the largest program in the United States. And we are very, very excited about the investments that you're making.

It's pretty hard to go anywhere in the world and not run across somebody with a Mines connection. Secretary Burgum's experts in critical materials, over 200 of them will be moving to the Mines campus in about 6 months. So we'll be looking forward to welcoming you there for—for that particularly ceremony.

I want to thank you for two things. One is: Thank you for the investment in the mining schools. Our expertise has atrophied over time, particularly in the processing space. And this investment is going to make a big difference.

Second thing is: While a majority of, I think, programs have sort of shrunk over time, we've actually grown over the last 2 years. And I want to thank you because I attribute that growth to your—you and your administration's highlighting of critical minerals in the press and the amazing team that you have working through you—through Interior and Energy, other folks.

It has really, I think, made it—made families feel like this is a field that their children can go into, and I think that's——

That's great.

——that's the start of——

It's a great field.

——of getting things through there.

The other thing I want to thank you for is the investment you just announced in Mines in our commercialization hub. I've always had this dream of having a facility—and we have a 50,000-square-foot facility—that could be dedicated to technology, taking it from ideas to pilot scale to commercialization in a very quick period of time. And your investment in us in doing that is going to enable us to be able to do that.

We're up for the challenge. We're really excited for it. We were doing the happy dance a little earlier when we found out—[ laughter ]—for—when we heard your announcement. And really look forward to doing what we can for the country.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you.

Victoria.

Mr. President, you have brought mining back to America—single-handedly, you and your administration. And I just we wanted to thank you for your enduring support.

I run Resolution Copper, which is one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world. It is in a forgotten part of Arizona called the Copper Corridor, and it is—we've already invested $3 billion so that we're ready to go. But we started permitting in 2005, and if it were not for your administration—we finally got it over the line in this year—earlier this year.

So we have 4,000 people that will work at our facility—4,000 miners. We hope to work closely with the mining schools and hire many of the students that will be graduating. A billion dollars every year for 60 years invested into the economy. And we also have a smelter. And I think that's the thing that makes it very unique.

We can keep everything in the United States and a host of critical mineral coproducts as well.

That's great.

So thank you again. And on behalf of Rio Tinto, BHP, and the hundreds of underground miners who are absolutely fabulous that run the mine today, thank you very much. We are rolling in drill rigs, we are rolling in equipment——

Great.

——and we're getting on with it.

Good luck.