The Department of War's Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy announced Monday that it is investing $450 million in The Elmet Group, a U.S.-owned, fully integrated producer of tungsten and molybdenum materials and components. This decisive action, spearheaded by the War Department's Economic Defense Unit – a critical initiative created in April 2026 to leverage private-sector financial expertise against foreign adversaries – signals a robust commitment to America First principles.

The Economic Defense Unit operates with three core missions that are vital to national security:

• Protect Supply Chains: The unit secures critical materials like tungsten and rare minerals to avoid foreign dependencies.
• Deploy Capital: It helps structure large government investments using private market strategies.
• Target Adversaries: It focuses on countering economic pressure from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy Mike Cadenazzi rightly affirmed, "This investment reflects the Department's commitment to rebuilding critical industrial capacity in the United States. Expanding domestic tungsten processing will strengthen supply chain resilience, support high-quality manufacturing jobs, and reinforce the production base behind essential defense systems."

Tungsten is not merely a commodity; it's a foundational defense material, crucial for our missiles, munitions, aerospace, and naval systems. This investment by the Department of War is a vital step toward securing a domestic supply of this element, an element we have dangerously relied on China to provide for far too long. That era of vulnerable dependence is now ending.

For decades, our nation's critical defense materials were left subject to the whims of our adversaries. President Trump’s administration is finally doing what should have been done long ago: ensuring America’s strategic independence. We once relied upon Russia and China for our literal ammunition supply, a truly INSANE reality. Now, thanks to the America First vision, we are decisively moving towards self-sufficiency, challenging communist China's chokehold on essential resources.

The urgency of this strategy became starkly clear in October 2025 when China, in an act of blatant economic coercion, announced export controls on all rare earths refined within its borders. Their message was unmistakable: any nation purchasing these materials from China surrendered its economic sovereignty. Beijing’s predatory practices involve observing promising technologies that threaten its monopolies, then flooding the market to depress prices, driving American innovators out of business. The Trump administration took this threat seriously.

The administration has aggressively moved to secure America’s future, creating a strategic reserve of raw materials through initiatives like Project Vault, a $12 billion plan designed to shield the U.S. from China’s mineral dominance. More importantly, it has started directly investing in American companies that extract and process critical minerals, ensuring that our nation's industrial base is resilient against foreign economic warfare.

This deal with The Elmet Group is incredibly significant. It will expand domestic manufacturing, mining, processing, and raw material supply, with critical mining operations set to revive in Maine, Michigan, and Ohio. Crucially, $150 million is earmarked to reopen Nevada’s long-abandoned Springer Tungsten Complex, which holds an estimated two million tons of tungsten ore – a sleeping giant ready to bolster American power.

Moreover, The Elmet Group has secured a U.S. Defense Logistics Agency contract worth up to $2 billion to help rebuild the National Defense Stockpile. This brilliant maneuver prevents China from crushing The Elmet Group by locking in a vital revenue stream, protecting American industry from hostile market manipulation.

Of course, this common-sense approach to national security has stirred the predictable outrage from certain quarters. The Cato Institute, often found beating the drum for open borders and amnesty, somehow feigns shock when the U.S. government takes decisive action to protect the nation from foreign enemies. Apparently, common sense needed a permission slip. While most of their comments are hidden behind blocks (funny how that always seems to happen in one direction), their ideological aversion to any government action, even for national defense, remains clear.

To be clear, none of these strategic investments involve the U.S. government taking a majority stake. Typically, they involve equity, warrants, convertible securities, and even “golden shares,” which grant the government a significant say – if not an outright veto – in corporate governance. This ensures American interests are always paramount.

The U.S. federal government has, under President Trump, become one of the most active and strategic equity investors in vital industries, and it has done so with remarkably little fanfare. Since January 2025, Washington has announced roughly $27.6 billion across 37 deals involving equity or quasi-equity stakes in public and private companies. These critical investments span semiconductors, advanced computing, critical minerals extraction and processing, steel, nuclear, and defense systems. And let us not forget the groundbreaking deal where the Pentagon secured 100-year rights to Venezuelan oil output, locking Beijing out of a critical resource – a true Monroe Doctrine with a term sheet.

The idea that we can simply rely on the “free market” to secure our nation's warfighting materials is a dangerous fantasy, especially when roughly 80 percent of those materials originate from our two major potential enemies: China and Russia. After decades of weakness and strategic neglect, the Trump administration has chosen to ensure American self-sufficiency by directly empowering American companies to produce these essential materials on American soil. The fact that the Cato Institute and its libertarian allies are “torqued” over this decision doesn’t just confirm its correctness; it makes the victory for American sovereignty all the sweeter. This is what America First looks like: strong, independent, and secure.