Remarks transcript, Aug 7, 2026 (Donald Trump)

Thank you.

Great. I don't think you're going to need too much luck. [ Laugher ]

Tom and David, go ahead, please.

Mr. President, I'm a very, very proud former alumni of the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Mines. So, on behalf of all the faculty here, the students here, I am thrilled with all of your announcements today.

I mean, we've all been frustrated over r decades. You're making something happen. I really appreciate that.

My first mining job was in Alaska, staking the claims near the Ambler District, and we were in a rush then. This was 1975—1976. And it's still not permits. Thank you for breaking that logjam.

I have presented you a gift to the American people on a project that I've been very involved with. It's deep-sea nodules. I'm—like you, I'm a fan of gold, and this is a solid gold replica of a deep-sea nodule.

Now, I wish the nodules down in the deep sea had a lot of gold in them—they'd be more attractive—but they—they do contain 20 critical metals. And these are 20 critical metals that are going to be needed for the reindustrialization of America. They're going to be needed for defense purposes. They're going to be needed for all the technologies that we are relying on and every single citizen of the United States take for granted. That should be part—a key part of the supply chain, and that's what mining can do.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Where's the gold? Come on. Bring it over here. [ Laughter ]

Pass it down.

I want the gold. He just said—let me see what it looks like. It should be very heavy. It's the heaviest material——

The gold is more fun.

Let me see.

Pass the magnet down.

It is. That's heavy. [ Laughter ]

It's real.

That's fantastic.

Oh, I like that too, huh? This is so valuable.

Yes, sir.

I don't know—do you have a lot of competition, I hope? Because people have to go after—this is so—people have no idea how valuable that——

Thank you very much, fellas. It's really beautiful.

Please, David.

And as somebody who joined the Trump administration from the mining industry, I just want to say that absolutely nobody supports our industry more than President Trump.

So, for decades, we felt ignored by Washington, and we've seen our industry outsourced to our geopolitical competitors. So I'm so grateful to work for you because you get it and you understand that this industry is foundational to our economic and national security.

So thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership on these issues.

And I know from all of us here in industry that we are committed to building the world's best mining sector here in the United States and reestablishing American mineral dominance.

Thank you, sir.

Great. Thank you very much.

My friend.

Well, the mining industry has no greater friend than President Trump. He's—obviously, everybody knows he's the greatest dealmaker in the world. But what he's doing here today is bigger than any deal or one deal or two deals. This is generational.

He is focusing on the next generation of miners. That is something that has never been done before by a President of the United States. He is single handedly, today, going to change the entire next generation of mining in America, and he is making America the center of energy dominance for the world.

So thank you, Mr. President.

Well, thank you very much. And great.

Would you like to say anything, fellas? Good-looking guys here.

Mr. President, this is a truly historic occasion to bring America back to the leadership of mining, which built this building and which built this country.

We've been sleepwalking through many administrations, and this is a revolution that will just electrify the millions of people in the United States that understand that everything you touch, we either mined it or we grew it agriculturally. And the people that are the farmers really need everything the miners produce to help them farm.

So this is critical to our national security. We're elated with your support, and we're going to use Yankee ingenuity to prove that we can dominate the supply chain again rather than have that used by other nations against us.

Thank you for that.

You know, you used the word "sleepwalking." That's what our country was doing with respect to mining and many other things too, by the way. But "sleepwalking," it's a great word. Thank you.

Thank you.

Please.

Yes, it's an honor to be here. This is so exciting to see this attention. You know, I'll just say thank you for your attention to this matter, as you like to end your post. [ Laughter ] It's awesome. And we're here, and we're ready to go. So thank you.

Well, I just want to thank you very much. This is an honor for me to be here. I love what you do.

Doug made a terrible mistake before when he said "coal." I said, "You have to always precede it by saying, 'clean, beautiful coal.'" [ Laughter ] He made a speech once, and it was a great speech. But he took me very much, you know, at the word. He said, "Clean, beautiful coal." He mentioned coal about 40 times, and he kept saying, "Clean, beautiful coal"—I said: "Okay, that's enough. That's enough." [ Laughter ] But it is. It needs a little public relations help, but it doesn't need so much anymore.

We're producing more coal now than just about ever before. It's firing up our great plants. And certain types of plant, there's, you know, nothing like it. And we were out of that business. If you would have seen the people suffer, and some of you were those people—I believe some of you were the people. But there's great, big coal deposits, and you couldn't touch them. If you touched them, you were, like, a bad person. They put you in jail. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

And you know, China is smart, and they're using coal. They're building 58 coal plants right now—generating plants, all coal. They don't have too much wind.

You know, they sell us wind turbines, but they don't use too many of them, so—it's because they're smart. They sell them, but they don't use them.

They have one that's pretty big. Doesn't work. It just is for purposes of show. When they go to look at a turbine, they go and show them—"And here we are." But the—[ laughter ]—they never work. So it's crazy.

But clean, beautiful coal is something special. It's all very special. And we're back in the mining business. And I'm very proud of the country. I'm very proud of what you do. You do—you really do. I say—I said before walking in, "These are the people that really built America." And you were not treated properly, but you're—we're making up for lost time. You're being treated very properly right now.

So I just want to thank everybody. Great honor to be with you. Thank you. Congratulations.