Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
President Donald Trump offered an enthusiastic endorsement of magnets during a Friday State Department event, proclaiming, “You gotta go with magnets,” as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick plugged Vulcan Elements, a company backed by Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm.
Appearing before executives from top mining companies to promote “a series of historic mining projects,” Trump told the audience, “Magnets. You gotta go with magnets. That’s a good one. Everybody should go for magnets. We really badly need it.”
Lutnick went on to boast, “Vulcan Elements — $1.4 billion, also to build right here in the United States.” Here, the commerce secretary is referring to a 2025 deal between the Trump administration and the rare-earth magnet startup, which, in Lutnick’s words at the time, was meant to “ensur[e] America’s supply chain is strong, secure and perfectly reliable.”
As the Associated Press noted, “The deal includes a $620 million loan from the Department of Defense, $50 million of federal incentives from the Department of Commerce and $550 million in private capital.”
Three months before that deal was announced, according to a May ProPublica investigation, Trump Jr.’s firm, 1789 Capital, invested in Vulcan. The outlet further reported that White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro personally requested that the Pentagon approve the $620 million loan. Defense officials told the outlet they were instructed to move unusually quickly after receiving the request, with one official recalling, “The call came from the White House: We have to get this done.”
And not to mention, Trump has mentioned magnets before. In July, he urged defense contractors to “do magnets” during an appearance at the Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit, emphasizing, “I hope you’re gonna do magnets. Somebody out there, I hope — you’re all brilliant people — magnets. Do magnets, ok? I’ll tell you how to make money. Do magnets.”
Trump’s latest push for mining projects also comes as a recent New York Times investigation found that Trump Jr. and Eric Trump secured a financial stake in a U.S.-backed tungsten mining venture in Kazakhstan as Trump and Lutnick helped advance the project and pursued billions of dollars in federal support. The White House denied any conflict of interest, and both Trump brothers said they were not involved in negotiating the deal.
Watch the clips above via Fox News.
The post Howard Lutnick Hypes Don Jr-Backed Magnet Firm as Trump Declares, ‘You Gotta Go With Magnets!’ first appeared on Mediaite.
