Trump & Lutnick and the reason we’re taking 600,000 Chinese students. The real reason is…
Did Lutnick really just argue that Trump is letting 600,000 Chinese students into America so Americans will go to worse schools and keep them from closing?
— CHASE GEISER (@realchasegeiser) August 26, 2025
In actuality, the US is taking 600,000 Chinese college students as part of a TRADE DEAL. This deal was negotiated by Lutnick himself, announced June 11.
Allow me to explain the background here.
So, remember back in April, when Trump unilaterally imposed tariffs on China? China then retaliated by restricting export of rare earth minerals to the US.
Source:
China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies
April 13, 2025
“Beijing has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/business/china-rare-earths-exports.html
That’s a BIG problem for the US, because China controls 90% of global rare earth mineral processing. The US doesn’t currently have the capacity to process / refine our own rare earth minerals. We are wholly reliant on China for them until we build our own refining facilities (which they’re working on, expected completion is still a few years away).
So, back in June, Howard Lutnick (along with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ambassador Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative) went to London to negotiate a trade deal with China. As part of this deal (the full details of which are unclear) China insisted the US take more Chinese college students as a condition of restoring export of rare earth minerals to the US.
Source 1:
US and China agree framework deal to extend trade war truce
11 Jun 2025
“The talks, which broke up at about midnight UK time after more than 20 hours of discussions over two days, were led by the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, alongside the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the trade representative, Jamieson Greer.”
Lutnick expressed optimism on Tuesday that concerns about critical or rare earth minerals and magnets, which are vital to a range of industries including cars, electronics and defence, would be resolved as the deal was implemented.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/11/us-china-trade-talks-framework-deal-amid-dispute-over-rare-earths#:~:text=The%20talks%2C%20which%20broke%20up,as%20the%20deal%20was%20implemented.
Source 2:
Trump Strikes a Deal to Restore Rare Earths Access
June 11, 2025
“…the United States will allow Chinese students into its colleges and universities”
https://www.csis.org/analysis/trump-strikes-deal-restore-rare-earths-access
You can look all this up yourself. But basically, taking more Chinese students is the concession Trump had to make in order to fix his April tariff fuckup – because China has us by the balls on rare earths.
Biggest consumers of rare earth minerals and magnets are the military industrial complex, green energy (like wind turbines, solar), and electric cars.
Technocrats and warmongers win, you lose. They need rare earths to build the electric control grid, drones, surveillance infrastructure (and, speculatively, their robot army).
All of this information was widely reported at the time and is freely available online, if you know the search terms to look for.
So, ask yourself – WHY aren’t Trump and Lutnick being forthright about the real reason?