First, China wielded its dominance over rare earth minerals to secure a truce in President Donald Trump’s trade war. Ask The Post AIDive deeper“The global economy was designed for the benign environment of the 1990s when we assumed that China and Russia would be our friends. “This process is just going to keep going on until you have a new global economy.”Exploiting economic dependency is not unprecedented. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has worried publicly that other nations’ economic leverage will “constrain our ability to make foreign policy” unless the U.S. diversifies its supply lines. On Friday, the president scoffed at Iran’s ability to maintain its commercial chokehold, minimizing the global economic tumult that it has unleashed.

Source: Washington Post April 12, 2026 12:01 UTC