Eric Ham is based in Washington, D.C. and is a political analyst for CTV News. He’s a bestselling author and former congressional staffer in the U.S. Congress and writes for CTVNews.ca.
The fight for rare earth minerals pits the world’s two biggest economies in a race for global supremacy. Moreover, as this back-and-forth unfurls, U.S. President Donald Trump’s willingness to blow up longstanding norms, relationships, and treatises underscores the lengths Washington and Beijing are prepared to go for domination.
Plans are already being designed for a U.S. takeover of Greenland. Yet, more dastardly and no doubt troubling, is Trump’s fanciful ambitions of an American annexation of Canada. Since the president’s historic victory last November, the former reality television star has unleashed a barrage of nihilistic attacks on the United States’ northern neighbour.
Beijing’s weaponization of its global leading bounty of rare earth minerals has the White House desperate to catch up — and it is now Ottawa and its 150-year history and alliance with America that stands on the precipice of potential erasure.
Since his surprise victory in 2016, Trump has always made it known his desires to bring Greenland under the flag of American sovereignty. Citing national security reasons for this questionable idea, most within foreign policy circles simply dismissed the thought as the incoherent ramblings of a novice and capricious politician, unsophisticated in the ways of geopolitics.
However, since his return to Washington, Trump, to the surprise of many, has only added to the list of nations he wants under U.S. control. Beyond the annexation of Greenland, the president has expressed desires to also control the Panama Canal and Canada.
Not stopping there, the Trump administration is also eyeing dominance of the Arctic. The successful passage of the recently enshrined law, the Big Beautiful Bill Act, allocates US$8.6 billion to increase the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker fleet where Washington hopes to counter rising Russian and Chinese dominance.
Recognizing the U.S. is woefully lagging China’s unmatched economic pre-eminence, the White House is making aggressively bold overtures to close the gap. Takeover bids and brazen confrontations are now the weapons of choice being used to counter Beijing’s strength.
Tariffs might be the signature economic policy of this administration but clearly, they are a means to an end. No doubt, the tariffs are meant to paralyze and destabilize nations and regions by crippling economies and markets forcing them to bend to the will and might of America’s newest strongman.
Trump telegraphed such maneuvers early in his second term when ratcheting up takeover talks specifically of Greenland and Canada. Now, as China and the U.S. intensify their trade war, Beijing has wielded its secret weapon with efficient precision.
Imposing new export controls on seven rare earth elements, China’s demonstration of its economic and political muscle further revealed America’s weakness in its ongoing imbroglio with the Asian superpower.
In an audacious, if not reckless effort to catch up, Trump has turned to the quixotic and fatalistic notion that bringing Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal under U.S. sovereignty will shorten the distance with its economic rival.
Yet, Beijing’s approach to its accumulation of critical minerals — that power everything from fighter jets to missiles, electric vehicles to drones and even wind turbines — was done without firing so much as a warning shot; not even a belligerent or antagonistic remark was made.
In fact, its overtures to join its silk and road initiative (BRI) was seen as too attractive for many nations to pass up. Contrast that with Washington’s hard power approach, which has already backfired spectacularly, as evidenced by the nationalistic fervour and resistance orchestrated by both Canadians and Greenlanders, to come under the U.S. flag. Prime Minister Mark Carney, with great aplomb, directly dismissed a Washington takeover during his inaugural meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.
A recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute shows that when it comes to current negotiations with the United States, “Three-in-five respondents said Canada should take a hard approach at 63 per cent, rather than a soft one, at 37 per cent.” The data was taken before and after Trump’s announcement of the new 35-per-cent tariff.
Additionally, the survey stated that when it comes to supply management, half of Canadians want Ottawa negotiators to stand firm, even if it means retaliation. More importantly, on the critical issue of rare earth minerals, perhaps the sole overarching reason Trump is ready to wage war with America’s century-old neighbour: two-thirds (66%) say no to offering the U.S. first priority on critical minerals.
Trump learned, perhaps too late, that for nearly two decades, U.S. critical mineral supply chains were “too concentrated, too fragile, and too exposed” to Chinese leverage and control. Now, in a fruitless race to level the playing field, the president is waging economic warfare against allies, neighbours, and friends. His historic blow-up at the White House, lashing out at Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky, was largely fuelled by frustration the embattled European leader was stalling on an agreement of military assistance in exchange for American control of Ukraine’s mineral resources.
However, now the deal is finalized, the president recently announced the sale of Patriot systems to European and NATO allies to provide to Kyiv in its ongoing war against Russia. Still, the historic deal does very little to dent China’s dominance over the United States.
Trump, though touting the agreement as a massive win for the U.S., very acutely knows it is not enough to shore up American supply chain vulnerabilities — not if, but when, China chooses to act.
Threats to national sovereignty; unceasing ignominious characterizations of a relationship that has been a shining beacon of cooperation and mutual benefit for more than a century; and now, economic policies that are posing threats not just to perceived enemies but to American consumers.
Trump’s efforts to lead the nation back from its second-tier status against China is noble, but in waging war against Beijing, Trump’s misguided efforts now has America’s allies catching strays and it is the nation’s biggest trading partner, Canada, suffering the most.
