This is an updated version of a story first published on March 22, 2026. The original video can be viewed here. In May, President Trump traveled to Beijing for a summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. One agenda item that figured prominently: rare earth elements. Right now, China holds a near-monopoly over these strategic metals that are key components in so much that makes the modern world go: smartphones, robotics, EV's; also fighter jets, drones and radar technology. That is, China controls materials essential to America's ability to wage war. But tonight, the story of an American company confronting this elemental crisis. It mines rare earth elements, processes them, and makes them into superpowered magnets. And as we first reported in March, it's part-owned by us, American taxpayers, in an unusual deal crafted by the federal government.An hour southwest of Las Vegas, in the guts of the Mojave, Mountain Pass, California, might be the ultimate front of our trade war with China. This massive cavity in the ground? Behold, the only active rare earth mine in the U.S. This is an unlikely battleground.Jon Wertheim: Are we stepping on rare earths, as we speak? Michael Rosenthal: Yes. Everywhere you look is, is rare earths.And Michael Rosenthal and James Litinsky are the unlikely men in charge, two Floridians in the snow, two finance types suddenly trafficking in mining and metallurgy.Jon Wertheim: You have no background in geology and now, you're running the biggest rare earth mine in the U.S.