Daily Caller
Tim Walz And The Hidden Story Of Twin Metals

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The media is now working overtime to rewrite the background of the Harris-Walz ticket. With all eyes shifting to Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, they have their work cut out.
Get ready for a new, refined version of Walz, where he is cast as a moderate, pro-worker Midwesterner — meant to balance out Kamala’s left-wing liberalism. But Walz is not that and American steelworkers, their families and the communities surrounding the Twin Metals Mine of Northeast Minnesota know this all too well.
Northeastern Minnesota is blessed with a plethora of critical and strategic metals that are key components to our modern life. There is an area referred to as the Duluth Complex that, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, is home to the largest undeveloped deposits of nickel, cobalt and platinum group minerals (PGM) in the world.
The Twin Metals mine in particular is positioned to be a state-of-the-art underground operation within the Duluth Complex using advanced and precise methods of extraction that could deliver these much-needed metals to growing markets.
Given that these metals are key components to cell phones and cars — both gas-powered and electric — as well as solar panels and windmills, the location of these minerals here in the United States should be good news. This should especially be true for an administration like Biden-Harris that is hell-bent on restructuring our entire utility and vehicle industries, so they are more “green.”
From a practical perspective, this type of restructuring will require an immense amount of the minerals that are located at, and very accessible in, the Twin Metals mine. Globally, one estimate suggests that to reach electrification goals the world will need to produce the same amount of copper in the next 25 years as humanity has produced in the last 5,000.
Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris administration not only cancelled two long-standing mineral leases at the Twin Metals mine, but they also imposed a 20-year moratorium on the surrounding area. This decision imperiled the 750 direct jobs and 1,500 spinoff jobs in the surrounding community that the mine would have supported.
Many of these jobs were for United Steelworkers who were set to buildout and operate the $1.7 billion mine. As often as the Biden-Harris administration talked about creating green energy jobs, they took numerous actions that cancelled the ones that actually did exist.
Walz oversaw the entire debacle. And when the Twin Metals mine and local jobs organizations asked for a lifeline in the aftermath of the Biden-Harris cancellation, he answered it with … more process! Specifically, Walz’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) allowed the mine to explore surrounding state and private lands for minerals but reiterated there would be no actual mining, and such a decision would likely be years into the future after “lengthy environmental review and permitting.”
In other, non-bureaucratic words: It’s paralysis by analysis for the project.
These cancelled mining projects and jobs would have been done consistent with U.S. safety and environmental standards. Instead, China will reap the benefits of the Biden-Harris cancellation and Walz’s complacency.
Beyond concern for negative environmental impacts, some reports have found that foreign sourced minerals are mined using child forced labor. From a national security purview, this anti-development approach is equally damaging as U.S. reliance on foreign-sourced minerals continues to grow. Specifically, for the minerals buried in abundance at the Twin Metals mine, the U.S. is over 50% import reliant for nickel, 79% reliant for platinum, 76% reliant for cobalt, and 37% reliant for copper.
Those who have seen Walz work up close, including Republican Rep. Pete Stauber, have sounded the alarm on the consequences of his anti-mining, anti-energy policies. Under his watch Minnesota electricity costs have skyrocketed for residents.
For businesses, it’s even worse. Minnesota now boasts the highest industrial electricity prices in the Midwest.
Walz’s folksy appearance aside, he has embraced California-style climate zealotry to the extreme. He signed his state up for “100 percent carbon free electricity by 2040” which is estimated to cost billions of dollars, double electricity prices by 2034, lead to blackouts and kill jobs.
He also wants to ban gas-powered vehicles in the process.
Walz’s aggressive, anti-development approach, especially on energy and the environment, mirrors that of failing socialist nations. It is no wonder Minnesota has experienced significant downfalls under his leadership.
Regardless of how the media portrays him, they cannot erase his record of selling out the workers of Twin Metals mine to the liberal Left.
Mandy Gunasekara served as chief of staff to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
Business
‘Time To Make The Patient Better’: JD Vance Says ‘Big Transition’ Coming To American Economic Policy

JD Vance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” discussing tariff results
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
Vice President JD Vance said Thursday on Newsmax that he believes Americans will “reap the benefits” of the economy as the Trump administration makes a “big transition” on tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679.39 points on Thursday, just a day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs against nations charging imports from the U.S. On “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Schmitt asked Vance about the stock market hit, asking how the White House felt about the “Liberation Day” move.
“We’re feeling good. Look, I frankly thought in some ways it could be worse in the markets, because this is a big transition. You saw what the President said earlier today. It’s like a patient who was very sick,” Vance said. “We did the operation, and now it’s time to make the patient better. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We have to remember that for 40 years, we’ve been doing this for 40 years.”
“American economic policy has rewarded people who ship jobs overseas. It’s taxed our workers. It’s made our supply chains more brittle, and it’s made our country less prosperous, less free and less secure,” Vance added.
Vance recalled that one of his children had been sick and needed antibiotics that were not made in the United States. The Vice President called it a “ridiculous thing” that some medicines invented in the country are no longer manufactured domestically.
“That’s fundamentally what this is about. The national security of manufacturing and making the things that we need, from steel to pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, and so forth, but also the good jobs that come along when you have economic policies that reward investing in America, rather than investing in foreign countries,” Vance said.
WATCH:
With a baseline 10% tariff placed on an estimated 60 countries, higher tariffs were applied to nations like China and Israel. For example, China, which has a 67% tariff on U.S. goods, will now face a 34% tariff from the U.S., while Israel, which has a 33% tariff, will face a 17% U.S. tariff.
“One bad day in the stock market, compared to what President Trump said earlier today, and I think he’s right about this. We’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America. More importantly than that, of course, the people in Wall Street have done well,” Vance said.
“We want them to do well. But we care the most about American workers and about American small businesses, and they’re the ones who are really going to benefit from these policies,” Vance said.
The number of factories in the U.S., Vance said, has declined, adding that “millions of workers” have lost their jobs.
“My town [Middletown, Ohio], where you had 10,000 great American steel workers, and my town was one of the lucky ones, now probably has 1,500 steel workers in that factory because you had economic policies that rewarded shipping our jobs to China instead of investing in American workers,” Vance said. “President Trump ran on changing it. He promised he would change it, and now he has. I think Americans are going to reap the benefits.”
2025 Federal Election
‘I’m Cautiously Optimistic’: Doug Ford Strongly Recommends Canada ‘Not To Retaliate’ Against Trump’s Tariffs

From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Jason Cohen
Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to avoid retaliation against the tariffs President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
Trump announced in the White House Rose Garden that he would impose “a minimum baseline tariff of 10%” on all goods entering the United States, with Canada not being included on the list of countries with higher rates. When asked about what Canada’s response would be on “Bloomberg: Balance of Power,” Ford said he was “cautiously optimistic” about Canada’s omission from the higher-tier tariffs and emphasized the importance of a cooperative relationship with the U.S.
WATCH:
“Well, let’s see where these tariffs go. I’m cautiously optimistic that I never saw Canada or Mexico on that list. And it just goes to show you two great countries working together, collaborating together and building relationships,” Ford said. “So again, I’m cautiously optimistic. I think if that’s the case, it’s the right thing for both the U.S and Canada.”
Host Kailey Leinz noted that there are currently tariffs on Canada in place as well as an exemption for goods that are in compliance with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
“Does that mean, sir, at least in your mind, that it wouldn’t be appropriate for Canada to retaliate for this at this time?” Leinz asked.
“That is correct. If that’s the case, then I would highly recommend to the prime minister not to retaliate. And let’s carry on a strong relationship,” Ford answered. “Let’s build the American-Canadian fortress around both countries and be the wealthiest, most prosperous, safest two countries in the world.”
Trump declared a national emergency to levy a slew of reciprocal tariffs on what he has deemed “Liberation Day.”
“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day, April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” Trump said.
The president also announced that he would proceed with implementing a 25% tariff on “all foreign-made automobiles” that will take effect at midnight.
Ford in March had imposed a 25% surcharge on electricity to New York, Michigan and Minnesota, but promptly rescinded the policy and apologized to Americans on WABC’s “Cats & Cosby” radio show the following day. The tariffs were a retaliatory measure against Trump’s flurry of tariffs against Canada since starting his second term.
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