"The cruelty is the point" is such a useful phrase.<p>When you govern by greed with dumb people instead of even vaguely altruistic if corrupt smart people inevitably dumb ideas float to the top. Tariffs, and seizing Greenland and giving up on western democratic ideals are par for the course: the one time a golfing analogy works is with a president who golfs more than presides.<p>He probably saw the word "rare" as meaning valuable in some sense other than useful and didn't listen to geologists who said rarity was a concept distinct from their name. What's really rare is sensible longterm strategic investment in rare earth supply chains outside of China. There are heaps of potential mines in the USA, and active projects in Australia but they're non competitive so without strategic impetus, nobody develops them.
rare earths != strategic minerals<p>Already explained with the same terminology<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43210884">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43210884</a>