Secretary Doug Burgum: Inside Our Strategy to End China’s Stranglehold on Critical Minerals

American Thought Leaders

The Epoch Times

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“President Trump talks about ‘drill, baby, drill.’ We’ve also got to mine, baby, mine. We’ve got to get back into this business,” says U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

China has a stranglehold on rare earths and critical minerals, controlling at least 85 percent of the refining of the 20 most important rare earth minerals, Burgum says.

As secretary of the interior, Burgum oversees nearly half a billion acres of federal land and plays a key role in the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda.

In this episode, we dive into what the Trump administration is doing to end America’s rare earth minerals dependency on China, accelerate energy production, and win the AI arms race against China, which will require major increases in energy supply.

We also discuss the government shutdown and how it impacts the Department of the Interior and the American people.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	President Trump talks about drill baby drill.
0:02.6	We've also got a mine baby mine.
0:04.4	We've got to get back into this business.
0:06.3	Joining us today is U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Doug Bergam,
0:10.2	who oversees nearly 500 million acres of public land
0:13.9	and plays a key role in Trump's energy dominance agenda.
0:17.5	If a rare earth mineral company became profitable,
0:20.3	and then all of a sudden, boom, the next
0:21.9	year they're losing $200 million because China's dumping in the market.
0:25.7	China has got a stranglehold on all of these essential minerals that are needed for our technology,
0:31.7	for our defense.
0:33.1	This is American Thought Leaders and I I'm Janja Kellick.
0:41.1	Secretary Doug Bergam, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.
0:43.4	Jan, great to be with you.
0:44.3	Thanks for having me on.
0:46.4	So you recently discussed something that's
0:49.2	very, very close to my heart or the thing
0:52.2	that I'm really concerned about.
0:53.8	It's this issue of critical minerals.
0:56.0	You said China today controls 85 to 100% of all the refining of the 20 most important rare earth
1:04.4	minerals. Okay, break that down for me, please, sir. Well, it's a shocking fact that we've allowed ourselves to get in a position where China
1:14.4	has got a stranglehold on all of these essential minerals that are needed for our technology,
	...

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