That’s what we’re doing with the ACCC out here with PANAMAX: expanding peace through strength in our hemisphere, right here in the jungles with our partners, in a way that SOUTCOM just wasn’t doing 18 months ago.

There was a whole different set of priorities not focused on the Western Hemisphere, not focused on securing the homeland, not focused on making sure we go after drug traffickers and designated terrorist organizations.

Under President Trump, we know exactly what that mission looks like.

Today, we launched the motto of the ACCC, which is "We do bad things to bad people."

For too long, bad people did bad things to good people inside the United States of America and across Central and South America.

We are going to empower great Americans and great partners to do really good stuff and be very capable at bringing violence against drug cartels and designated terrorist organizations because we're dead serious about securing the homeland.

We will not allow foreign malign influence to take over key terrain, like the Panama Canal.

It is night and day—go talk to anybody who looked at SOUTHCOM.

I was not joking when I talked about what the priorities were. It was gender issues, climate change, and diversity. It was like USAID, but with some guns.

The U.S. has long miscalculated due to intelligence failures. Case in point: The war on Iran. Now, an even bigger miscalculation on the Strait of Hormuz.

Worse than fake news is fake intelligence. Be careful.

Allah is Great, Greater than ANY power on Earth. In Allah we trust.

Japanese researchers estimate the seabed contains more than 16 million tons of rare earths, including critical heavy elements such as dysprosium, terbium, yttrium, and gadolinium. The yttrium deposits alone could reportedly cover 780 years of global demand, while samples contain little radioactive material compared with many land-based deposits.

Japan plans a month-long full-scale extraction, refining, and smelting test in February 2027, followed by a commercialization assessment in 2028. A future system could extract around 3,500 tons of seabed mud per day. Tokyo expects about $5.7 billion in public and private deep-sea resource investment through 2040, while U.S. firms including Deep Reach Technology have shown early interest.

The project remains extremely difficult: pressure at 6 km is around 600 times atmospheric pressure, commercial development could cost billions and take more than a decade, and extraction may cost roughly three times more than Chinese land-based mining, alongside environmental concerns.

The project has also become strategically important as China controls around 90% of global rare-earth supply and has restricted exports. Chinese survey vessels have operated near Minamitorishima, and a Chinese aircraft carrier entered its EEZ in June 2025. Japan has since strengthened the remote island with a Type 12 anti-ship missile launcher, electronic warfare equipment, and a ScanEagle II drone while considering additional radar, runway, and harbor infrastructure.

If successful, Minamitorishima could become Japan’s only rare-earth mine and help the U.S. and Japan establish a closed-loop “mine-to-magnet” supply chain independent of China, although commercial production is unlikely before Trump leaves office.