President Donald J. Trump hyped magnets during a speech amid controversy over a report that a company linked to his son got White House help to secure a $620 million Defense Department loan for rare-earth magnet manufacturing.
According to a recent investigative report from left-leaning ProPublica, Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm took a stake in North Carolina-based Vulcan Elements before it scored the government funding, one of several companies being considered by the Pentagon before the alleged involvement of a top White House aide.
“The call came from the White House: We have to get this done,” an unnamed Pentagon official is quoted in the ProPublica report, which was seized on by Democrat lawmakers who cried political cronyism.
During his Wednesday appearance at the Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which was attended by hundreds of defense industry execs, the president put in a plug for magnets.
Trump: I hope you’re going to do magnets. Somebody out there, I hope you’re all brilliant people, magnets, do magnets, OK, I’ll tell you how to make money. Do magnets. It’s one thing we don’t have. pic.twitter.com/kaQ3TZ85tN
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 15, 2026
“Firepoint Energy in Tunnelton will be investing at least $170 million in a pilot program to convert coal waste into jet fuel, electrical power and critical minerals,” Trump said, reading from a document. “And I hope you’re gonna do magnets. Somebody out there, I hope, you’re all brilliant people, magnets. Do magnets, ok?”
“I’ll tell you how to make money. Do magnets. You’re doing a lot of great stuff. Do magnets,” he repeated. “Because one thing we don’t have, but we are getting close, but do magnets.”
“We need magnets. So, one of you companies out there, go out, I’ll teach you how to make money,” the president added.
Trump’s remarks are certain to get the attention of Democrats with Senate lawmakers already demanding answers after the ProPublica report was published in May.
In a June 2 letter to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and four other Democratic senators sent a list of questions, including about the role of White House adviser Peter Navarro, who allegedly made the request to direct the funds to Vulcan.
“We write to demand a full explanation for what appears to be an egregious example of Trump administration corruption involving the White House delivering a lucrative Defense Department loan to a company with financial ties to the Trump family,” the lawmakers wrote.
“Congress and the public deserve answers about whether the White House is rigging or intervening in Pentagon contracting decisions in order to benefit the President’s family, and if so, who is responsible and how this impacts national security and the expenditure of taxpayer dollars,” the letter read.
The push for domestic magnet manufacturing comes at a time when America is trying to break dependency on communist China for the vital components.
“China was going to hit us with rare-earth. Now, everybody says, ‘Oh, what does that mean?’ Magnets. If China refused to give magnets, ’cause they have a monopoly on magnets ’cause they’re allowed to happen over a 32-year period, there wouldn’t be a car made in the entire world. There wouldn’t be a radio. There wouldn’t be a television. There wouldn’t be the Internet. There wouldn’t be anything because magnets are such a part,” Trump said during an Oval Office Q&A in November.
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