Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration will execute an “Operation Warp Speed”-style acceleration of America’s rare earth processing, anchored by the Department of Defense’s 15% stake in MP Materials. This comments comes as the cabinet secretary was being interviewed on Fox Business about the government shutdown freezing major IPOs because the SEC is closed, a situation he called a “serious national security issue.”
Outlining the financing philosophy under President Donald Trump, Bessent said the economic program aims to create assets, not debt, pointing to strategic equity positions including a stake in Intel and the Defense Department in MP Materials as examples of balance-sheet-backed industrial policy tied to critical-materials security.
The rare-earths push, Bessent indicated, is designed to secure the US mineral supply chain by scaling refining and processing at home and, in his words, to break China’s “stranglehold” on these steps for critical inputs.
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READ: US-China: Trump Says Xi Just Had “Bad Moment” On Tariff, Rare Earth Control Confusion
Bessent said the near-term constraint is the ongoing government shutdown, arguing it is “politically motivated” and directly impairing capital markets plumbing.
“The American people are being held hostage by Chuck Schumer’s poll numbers,” Bessent blamed the Democrats for the shutdown. The Democrats have been countering this argument, saying the proposed bill by the Republicans would kick millions out of medical assistance.
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