OPINION:
With President Trump saying he faces a choice of whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly,” the Pentagon is deploying a third aircraft carrier strike group and up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East.
Our commander in chief is fighting to bring about peace through strength and to create millions of American jobs by rebuilding critical domestic supply chains vital to our national security.
While serving my country for more than 33 years in uniform and during my tenure as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, I came to understand that we must defend supply chains for metals used by the U.S. military.
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As the Modern War Institute at West Point reported, aluminum is a “foundational material” for aircraft, armored vehicles, naval vessels and munitions. It sustains the infrastructure that is keeping our soldiers safe in the Persian Gulf today.
When it comes to supplying our warfighters with this mission-critical equipment, the Defense Department cannot rely on recycled, or secondary, aluminum. High-purity aluminum can be produced only in an aluminum smelter and is a key component in defense platforms such as nuclear warheads, Patriot missile systems and armored vehicles.
High-purity aluminum cannot be produced by recycling aluminum. The real question is: How much high-purity aluminum can America start producing domestically, and what happens if foreign supply is disrupted during a major conflict?
Today, the Chinese Communist Party and its state-owned entities dominate global aluminum production. China accounts for roughly 60% of global aluminum production, with domestic production capacity capped at 45 million metric tons by state policy.
This creates immense vulnerability should the U.S. take military action defending Taiwan in a peer-to-peer conflict.
When Canada received preferential treatment under the Biden administration, aluminum imports surged by 30%, three American smelters closed and 1,700 U.S. jobs disappeared. During that period, America’s — and the Western Hemisphere’s — last aluminum smelter capable of producing high-purity aluminum was forced to shut down.
Because Canada does not produce high-purity aluminum, the U.S. must now rely on supplies from the Persian Gulf. This extended supply chain poses a clear and present danger to U.S. national security, which is why Mr. Trump has taken strong action by imposing the 50% Section 232 aluminum tariff with no exceptions or exemptions.
Mr. Trump’s 50% Section 232 tariff is rebuilding critical national security supply chains and restoring the economic conditions necessary for America’s primary production to grow and prosper. Maintaining the Section 232 program is essential to rebuilding these critical supply chains. The United States cannot simply rely on foreign sources for the specialized, high-purity aluminum needed for defense applications.
Yet this progress is now threatened by efforts to weaken the president’s program under the false premise that America can simply recycle its way to the critical metals required to support our military.
While Canada and the aluminum recycling industry argue that “tariffs on primary aluminum won’t build a single smelter in the U.S.,” we are witnessing American aluminum capacity come back online across the nation.
The first new primary aluminum smelter in nearly 50 years is set to be constructed in Inola, Oklahoma, more than doubling U.S. production capacity. The companies building it credit Mr. Trump’s 50% Section 232 aluminum tariff with creating the conditions necessary for such a historic, multibillion-dollar investment in America.
Despite what special interest groups that benefit from a globalized aluminum supply chain claim, recycling more aluminum alone cannot erase a structural primary metal deficit. In fact, all recycled aluminum requires the addition of primary aluminum to its recycled content.
Producing more recycled aluminum means importing more primary aluminum feedstock, making the U.S. even more dependent on imports, not less. Perverse special interest groups care only about putting profits before people, rather than addressing the national security risks posed by our dependence on foreign sources of high-purity aluminum.
The United States must retain the industrial capacity to produce the materials its military depends on. America cannot afford to discover the limits of its primary-metal supply chain after a conflict has already begun.
If putting America first and keeping our nation safe is our goal, then investing in America and rebuilding our high-purity primary aluminum production capacity will truly make our country great.
• Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, U.S. Army (retired), served in the U.S. Army for more than 33 years and was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014 before serving as President Trump’s national security adviser in 2017.
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