Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about Trump,

Ukraine, deals, or moving on. There are two pretty big developments concerning the U.S., Trump, and

Ukraine. The events are contradictory and are certainly leading to mixed messages.

First up, it appears the U.S. and Ukraine are on the verge of a mineral deal, which would include rare earth minerals.

At time of recording, the exact details aren't known.

The Ukrainian Minister for the Economy posted to social media saying, quote,

We are happy to announce the signing with our American partners of a memorandum of intent,

which paves away for an economic partnership agreement and the establishment of the investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

A full deal is expected to be signed within the

next week. This creates a situation where the United States has a direct economic stake in

Ukraine's survival and defense. Now, really, that stake was always there, but Trump needs it to be transactional, and it looks like

we're there.

With the current situation involving China's rare earth mineral export controls, the U.S. national

interest in Ukrainian rare earth minerals was taken to another level.

That might explain the announcement.

That also means the U.S. is even more likely to maintain access to those minerals. Now, let's move on to the other event.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is signaling that Trump might be ready to give up on attempting

to work out a peace deal between

Russia and Ukraine. Talking to reporters as he was leaving Paris, Rubio said, quote,

If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on. We need to determine very

quickly now, and I'm talking about a matter of days whether or not this is doable.

He then went on to say that Trump, quote, has spent 87 days at the highest level of this government,

...