Trump says the US doesn’t need Canada. But it’s the source of key minerals for the military | Vince Beiser
‘It’s not only the US military that depends on Canada’s minerals.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersView image in fullscreen‘It’s not only the US military that depends on Canada’s minerals.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersOpinionCanadaTrump says the US doesn’t need Canada. Sixty percent of all the aluminum the US uses each year, for instance, comes from Canada, where mighty, remote rivers provide smelting plants vast quantities of cheap, low-carbon electricity. The US military uses the lightweight metal for everything from shell casings to ship hulls and aircraft fuselage.
- ▪‘It’s not only the US military that depends on Canada’s minerals.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersView image in fullscreen‘It’s not only the US military that depends on Canada’s minerals.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersOpinionCanadaT
- ▪Sixty percent of all the aluminum the US uses each year, for instance, comes from Canada, where mighty, remote rivers provide smelting plants vast quantities of cheap, low-carbon electricity.
- ▪The US military uses the lightweight metal for everything from shell casings to ship hulls and aircraft fuselage.
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| Original publisher | The Guardian — US |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/17/trump-canada-military-minerals |
| Publication time | Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:49 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-17T13:13:44.344Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-17T13:13:44.344Z |
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‘It’s not only the US military that depends on Canada’s minerals.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersView image in fullscreen‘It’s not only the US military that depends on Canada’s minerals.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersOpinionCanadaTrump says the US doesn’t need Canada. But it’s the source of key minerals for the militaryVince BeiserTrump himself has acknowledged the US need for Canadian aluminum – and has largely exempted metals from new tariffsThu 17 Sep 2026 09.00 EDTShareAs trade talks with Canada shambled toward collapse in late August, Donald Trump brayed on Truth Social: “WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” But in fact, Canada, like China, has something the US needs badly: critical metals that undergird modern military technology.Canada is the United States’s biggest…
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