Why are Ukrainian minerals important? Kevin Cirilli explains

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're live at Biscuit Belly this morning, and Hoover, come
on by. And the coffee is so good here too,
and no doubt about it, real good biscuits. Come on in. Hey, listen,
we have got a lot of guests coming up. A
little bit later, we'll run down some of the highlights
of who we're expecting this morning, plus we'll be recapping
President Trump's visit to the innersity of Alabama last night

(00:20):
and what a night it was. Joining us now Kevin Cirelli,
who's the founder of Meet the Future and also political
analyst on a number of different issues, including what's happening
obviously in Washington. Now's the United States and Ukraine have
agreed to an economic partnership with the minerals and why
this is so important and what it means moving forward

(00:40):
with Russia over there in the background looking at all
this as well. Kevin, welcome in, Thanks for being.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Here, Thanks for having me. I heard you guys have
biscuits in Alabama. I should be in Alabama this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
That's exactly right. Where are you? What part of the
world right now?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, I'm in Washington, DC, But I gotta say I
love Alabama. When I was covering candidate Donald Trump all
the way back in twenty and sixteen, if you can
remember back then, I remember making my way through there
and I got to say, you guys do have good
food down there in that part of our country.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
There's no doubt about it. And Donald Trump came back
last night did the commencement address at the university, and
what a reception he got, and they just, I mean
ate it up and loved him, and lots of great
cheers in there and really good messaging as well for
the students. So we'll have more on that coming up.
But I wanted to get your thoughts on what's happening
now with this Ukraine deal in the United States once again,

(01:32):
the art of the deal with Donald Trump pushing for
that deal, and here we go. After being escorted out
of the White House a while ago, Zelensky finally calmed
down and said, all right, let's do something.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
And some really powerful images from the Pope's funeral between
President Trump and President Zelensky just a few days ago.
But if there's one number I would ask folks to
remember this morning, it's seventy percent. Seventy percent of US
rare earth imports come from China. Think about that seventy
percent of our rare earth imports come from China, and

(02:03):
the Chinese Communist Party is no friends in the United States.
And so when you look at trying to diversify rare
earth minerals and the supply chains around that, which, by
the way, rare earth minerals are used not just in
military weaponry and military aircrafts, but they're also the building
blocks for everything from our smartphones to our laptops, to

(02:26):
every device we use, our car parts, everything, and so
as there's been a huge increase in the demand for
that over the last several decades, demand for rare earth
minerals have come up, and they're rare, and so five
percent could come from Ukraine. And that's why this deal
is so incredibly important when we.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
See this and the negotiations continue to try and end
the conflict in war with Russia and Ukraine, and President
Trump basically has said, look, both of you need to
work this out. Will help you do it, but if
you don't, this is your battle over there, and we're
going to kind of back out. As a nation. We've
been spending billions of dollars in supporting Ukraine they're not

(03:08):
a NATO nation. Does this change that game? Now that
we have an interest in Ukraine, and I'm sure we'll
have some security measures there to protect our interests. But
if we say we're backing out of this and all
of a sudden we've got a deal with Ukraine, we're
kind of back in here and can't really leave, can we.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I would look at it as an opportunity for US
businesses to have access to a market where there are
that is right for potential possibilities. And so what the
United States and Ukraine did was establish a reconstruction fund
and really with that and its core is a public

(03:46):
private partnership for the United States companies to be able
to again diversify off of their reliance on China to
look for opportunities in Ukraine. But by the way, businesses
are not just looking in Ukraine for these opportunities. They're
looking in Greenland, in Canada, They're looking even at the
Moon and Mars. And so mining for these minerals is

(04:06):
just going to become increasingly important. We talk a lot
about oil and the need for oil, which is by
the way, very important, but these other rare earth minerals
that are used to build. Our technology are becoming just
as important as oil.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I'm just picturing that guy having the conversation with his
wife this morning and going, hey, honey, you know the
company I work for deals in minerals, and I'm thinking
we're going to be moving. Oh where are we going? Ukraine?
I just can't imagine that going very well with the
type of conversation because American people are going to be

(04:42):
involved in this, and they're going to be over there.
To what degree, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
But yeah, I agree with you. I think it's a
good deal for the United States to have this with them.
But you keep an eye on pootin there in the
background too.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Kevin SURRELLI thank you, thank you for having me have
a good day. I'm going to say Horton doesn't like.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
The deal, clearly, clearly, not clearly not all right. There's
Kevin Cirelli from Meet the Future.