Since returning to power, Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he expects Ukraine to turn over many of its rare earth metals to the United States — as a token of its appreciation. The president has been quite candid about his perspective, declaring that the American government made considerable investments after Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, and “we want to get that money back.”
As a recent Washington Post analysis summarized, by demanding massive mineral concessions from Kyiv, the Republican appeared to be “turning back the clock to a time in world history when countries with the biggest militaries … demanded tribute from weaker nations.”
But while questions linger about what the White House can get from our war-torn allies, new developments raise concerns about what else Trump and his team might want from Ukraine. The New York Times reported on the president’s latest phone meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
During President Trump’s call with Zelensky, he suggested for what appeared to be the first time that the United States was interested in taking control of Ukraine’s electrical and nuclear power sites. According to a statement from Waltz and Rubio, Trump expressed that ‘the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise’ and that ‘American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the administration has now added to its original ambitions related to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. “We have moved beyond just the economic minerals deal framework,” the president’s chief spokesperson told reporters.
The Wall Street Journal added that Trump told Zelenskyy that if the U.S. were to acquire Ukrainian power plants, it would offer the “best protection for that infrastructure.” Or put another way, the president apparently believes that Russia would be less likely to attack Ukraine’s electrical and nuclear power sites if they were owned and controlled by Americans.
There’s still some confusion about the administration’s specific expectations. As NBC News reported, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said “there’s been ‘no discussion’ of the United States’ taking over Ukraine’s power plants or utilities, despite the administration’s readout of Trump’s call with Zelenskyy indicating the two leaders discussed such a possibility.”
Too often with Team Trump, the right hand doesn’t know what the even-further-to-the-right hand is doing. Presumably, they’ll figure out what their position is and get back to us. In the meantime, Zelenskyy also hasn’t indicated whether he’s prepared to turn over his country’s power plants to the U.S.
But while we wait for additional developments to bring things into focus, the list of questions is not short. Is the administration prepared to compensate Ukraine for its power plants? Does Trump intend to deploy U.S. military personnel to Ukraine in order to help protect these sites? Would Russia actually curtail its attacks on the plants? And what would Trump do if it didn’t? Watch this space.
