President Donald Trump warned that the United States could impose tariffs of up to 200% on Chinese goods if Beijing again restricts exports of rare-earth magnets, underscoring the strategic importance of the materials used in electric vehicles, smartphones and military hardware. China halted most magnet shipments in April, exploiting its roughly 90% grip on global output, before normalising flows under a tariff truce agreed in May. To curb reliance on Chinese supply, the administration is funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars into domestic producers. The Pentagon has committed $400 million to MP Materials, including a $150 million loan and a decade-long price guarantee for neodymium and praseodymium magnets. Additional funding in this year’s budget allocates $2 billion to expand the U.S. stockpile of critical minerals and a further $5 billion for supply-chain investments through 2029. Private projects are also accelerating: USA Rare Earth plans to open a 600-ton magnet plant in Oklahoma next year, while NioCorp is seeking $1.2 billion to mine niobium, titanium, scandium and rare earths in Nebraska. Even with these efforts, domestic output remains far below North America’s annual demand of about 35,000 tons, and analysts say the shortfall could double within a decade. Chinese trade envoy Li Chenggang is due in Washington this week for the first rare-earth talks in the U.S. capital in years, giving both sides a chance to shore up the fragile truce before it expires in November.