{"id":7423,"date":"2026-07-16T07:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7423"},"modified":"2026-07-16T07:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:44:14","slug":"trump-hypes-magnets-after-sons-firm-takes-stake-in-rare-earth-magnet-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7423","title":{"rendered":"Trump Hypes \u2018Magnets\u2019 After Son\u2019s Firm Takes Stake in Rare-Earth Magnet Company"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5415135\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5415135\" class=\"wp-image-5415135 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Donald-Trump-and-Donald-Trump-Jr-AP22300695118921.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr.\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5415135\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AP Photo\/Lynne Sladky<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>President <strong>Donald<\/strong> <strong>Trump<\/strong> urged defense contractors to &#8220;do magnets&#8221; on Wednesday, just seven weeks after <em>ProPublica\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/donald-trump-jr-vulcan-deal-white-house\">revealed<\/a> that a top White House aide intervened to help secure a $620 million Pentagon loan for a rare-earth magnet startup after <strong>Donald Trump Jr.&#8217;s<\/strong> venture capital firm took a stake in the company.<\/p>\n<p>The president made the Wednesday sales pitch, of sorts, during an appearance at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mccormick.senate.gov\/summits\/pennsylvania-defense-and-innovation-summit\/\">Pennsylvania Defense &amp; Innovation Summit<\/a>, speaking to an audience of some of the country\u2019s most dominant defense industry companies.<\/p>\n<p>Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/trump-lays-out-new-national-security-demand-we-need-magnets\/\">told<\/a> the crowd, &#8220;I hope you\u2019re gonna do magnets. Somebody out there, I hope \u2014 you\u2019re all brilliant people \u2014 magnets. Do magnets, ok? I\u2019ll tell you how to make money. Do magnets. You\u2019re doing a lot of great stuff. Do magnets. Because one thing we don\u2019t have, but we are getting close \u2014 but do magnets.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the late May <em>ProPublica<\/em> investigation, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing <strong>Peter<\/strong> <strong>Navarro<\/strong> personally requested that the Pentagon approve the loan to North Carolina-based Vulcan Elements, the only funding deal among dozens under consideration that was initiated by a top White House aide. Defense officials told the outlet they were instructed to move unusually quickly after receiving the request, with one official recalling, &#8220;The call came from the White House: We have to get this done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Trump Jr.&#8217;s firm, 1789 Capital, had invested in Vulcan roughly three months before the Pentagon announced the loan.<\/p>\n<p>The findings sparked swift backlash on Capitol Hill, with a group of Democratic lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/donald-trump-jr-vulcan-lawmakers-letter\">sending a letter<\/a> to White House Chief of Staff <strong>Susie<\/strong> <strong>Wiles<\/strong> demanding answers about the deal. The lawmakers wrote that <em>ProPublica&#8217;s<\/em> reporting &#8220;reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President&#8217;s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars,&#8221; while requesting information about Navarro&#8217;s involvement and whether Trump or other White House officials played a role in the Pentagon loan.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the president&#8217;s Wednesday remarks weren&#8217;t the first time he&#8217;s mentioned magnets. In November, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/trump-declares-nobody-knows-what-magnets-are\/\">told<\/a> reporters, &#8220;Nobody knows what magnets are.&#8221; In 2024, Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/trump-goes-on-bizarre-rant-against-magnets-give-me-a-glass-of-water-let-me-drop-it-on-the-magnets-thats-the-end-of-the-magnets\/\">falsely claimed<\/a> that magnets stop working when exposed to water, though he later hedged during a separate appearance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/trump-79-gets-confused-explaining-water-to-the-navy\/\">saying<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen,\u201d when discussing pouring water on one.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trump-hypes-magnets-after-sons-firm-takes-stake-in-rare-earth-magnet-company\/\">Trump Hypes \u2018Magnets\u2019 After Son\u2019s Firm Takes Stake in Rare-Earth Magnet Company<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AP Photo\/Lynne Sladky President Donald Trump urged defense contractors to &#8220;do magnets&#8221; on Wednesday, just seven weeks after ProPublica\u00a0revealed that a top White House aide intervened to help secure a $620 million Pentagon loan for a rare-earth magnet startup after Donald Trump Jr.&#8217;s venture capital firm took a stake in the company. The president made&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Donald-Trump-and-Donald-Trump-Jr-AP22300695118921.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}