Trump to counter Harris with competing economic agenda rollout
Republican Presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Aug. 17, 2024.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is countering the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ recently unveiled economic agenda, by laying out his own plan to boost the U.S. economy, the Republican’s campaign said Monday.
The announcement is just the latest indication of the Trump campaign’s efforts to refocus his message on policy after Harris became the Democratic nominee, neutralizing many of Trump’s attack lines against his former opponent, President Joe Biden.
Trump will announce a plan “to unleash American energy and lower costs for American families,” the campaign said in a press release Monday morning.
That agenda includes preserving the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, the release said. Those reforms are set to expire after 2025.
Trump more recently has championed a slew of tax-cutting measures, including eliminating taxes on service workers’ tips and ending taxes on Social Security for seniors.
He has also promised to slash Americans’ energy prices in half, and he recently suggested implementing sweeping tariffs of up to 20% on imported goods.
He has not detailed how these policy goals will be implemented or how they will be paid for. The Constitution gives Congress the power to levy taxes, meaning any plan to overhaul the tax code will have to go through the legislative branch.
Trump is scheduled to hold an economy- and energy-focused campaign event at an equipment manufacturer in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday at 3 p.m. ET.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, will also speak about energy and the economy earlier Monday afternoon, in Philadelphia, the Trump campaign said.
The bulk of Monday’s press release was focused on attacking Harris, rather than outlining Trump’s economic agenda.
Among other claims, the campaign accused Harris of wanting to let the Trump-era tax cuts expire and of seeking to ban gas-powered cars.
Both accusations included links to articles from 2019, when Harris was a Democratic presidential candidate. The Biden administration does not seek to ban the sale or ownership of cars with traditional gas engines.
The Trump and Harris campaigns have each claimed that the other’s plans would raise costs on average Americans.
“Donald Trump may hope that no one notices his plan to increase costs on middle- and working class Americans while he lies about Vice President Harris’ agenda, but he needs to be held accountable for it,” said Brian Nelson, a Harris campaign senior policy advisor, in a statement to CNBC.
Nelson’s statement cited a recent study from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a progressive advocacy group, that Trump’s tariff plans would amount to a $3,900 tax increase on middle-income families.
Trump delivered a speech in North Carolina last week billed as remarks on how he would handle the economy if given a second term in the White House. But his attention frequently strayed and he spoke at length about immigration and other issues, while lobbing personal insults at Harris.
At a press event at his New Jersey golf club days later, Trump spoke in front of tables filled with grocery items that were put on display to demonstrate how prices have risen during the Biden years. But he once again veered far off topic.
Environment
Trump is wielding the power of the state to back critical mineral companies. These are the possible next targets
The Trump administration needs to strike multiple deals with U.S. miners to secure the nation’s supply chain against China, said Mark Chalmers, CEO of Energy Fuels, a miner focused on uranium and rare earth minerals.
The Pentagon decision to take an equity stake in MP Materials, the largest U.S. rare earth miner, in July and support the company with a price floor surprised many in the industry, Chalmers told CNBC.
But it was a necessary step that the White House should now follow with more deals to diversify the U.S. supply chain and reduce the risk that would come with backing a single national champion, the CEO said.
“One company doesn’t fix it,” Chalmers said of the MP Materials deal. “You have to have multiple deals to ensure that you don’t just have the company risk, because all companies aren’t going to deliver.”
The White House is “not ruling out other deals with equity stakes or price floors as we did with MP Materials, but that doesn’t mean every initiative we take would be in the shape of the MP deal,” a Trump administration official told CNBC.
Rare earths are key inputs in weapons platforms such as the F-35 warplane as well as consumer products like electric vehicles and smartphones. The U.S. is almost entirely dependent on China, which supplied 70% of rare earth imports in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
China has manipulated the market by suppressing prices to drive Western competition from the market, said Ryan Castilloux, founder of Adamas Intelligence, a critical mineral market research firm. The MP deal demonstrated that the U.S. is willing to break with free market ideals and push back against China by mimicking its model of strategic capitalism when necessary, Castilloux said.
“We’ve seen just how disadvantaged the free market view is versus a long term, industrial policy driven market — and something needed to give,” Castilloux, an expert on critical minerals, told CNBC.
Possible rare earth targets
Energy Fuels’ stock has surged nearly 200% since the MP deal on July 10, as investors speculate that it could be a deal target for the Trump administration. Critical mineral miner NioCorp Developments is also up almost 200%, Ramaco Resources has gained 140%, and USA Rare Earth is up more than 70%.
MP Materials will likely need more heavy rare earths as it develops a second facility to make magnets under the Defense Department deal, Castilloux said. Heavy rare earths are needed to produce magnets that can withstand high temperatures in EV motors and defense industry applications, he said.
Headquartered in Denver, Energy Fuels is the largest uranium miner in the U.S. and is forming a rare earth operation through mines it has acquired around the world. Its operation will produce heavy rare earths, Chalmers said.
Energy Fuels is focused on “providing a product that is attractive to the U.S government” and complements the strengths of MP Materials, the CEO said.
“The government cannot bet on one horse — it just doesn’t make sense,” Chalmers said. “We spend a lot of time in D.C. making sure they understand the merits of our strategy,” he said.
Trump eyes lithium
Other critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and graphite are ripe for federal investment to smooth out volatile price fluctuations that undermine U.S. miners, said Rich Nolan, CEO of the National Mining Association. Those minerals are all used in batteries, among other applications.
The Trump administration has proposed an equity stake in Lithium Americas, as the Canadian company renegotiates the terms of a $2.2 billion loan from the Department of Energy for its Thacker Pass mine in northern Nevada. The mine is expected to become one of the largest sources of lithium in North America, with the first phase of the project scheduled to start operations in late 2027.
Lithium Americas stock surged more than 90% this week on news of the potential government stake.
Albemarle CEO Kent Masters told CNBC that something “in the ballpark” of the MP deal could apply to the lithium sector. Albemarle, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the largest lithium producers in the world.
“What you want to do is move the market such that private industry can invest behind it,” Masters told CNBC in July, pointing to Apple‘s offtake agreement with MP just days after the Defense Department deal.
Miners seek price floors
While it might take a government equity stake to move the market in some cases, the price floor established by the Pentagon in the MP deal is the “critical part” that allows private industry to invest and build out the supply chain, Masters said.
Price support from the federal government “sends a true market signal that these investments are long term, that they are here to stay,” the National Mining Association’s Nolan said.
Under the MP deal, the Pentagon set a price floor of $110 per kilogram for neodymium-praseodymium oxide, or NdPr, a key input in rare-earth magnets. The government pays MP the difference when the market price is below $110 but in turn takes 30% of the upside when the price is above $110.
The price of NdPr surged 40% in the wake of the MP deal, Castilloux said.
“It serves as a blueprint for any market where suppressed pricing is slanting the competitive playing field against the U.S. and its allies,” the analyst said of the price floor. The deal signals that “there is a way to break free of China’s artificially suppressed pricing,” he said.
This month, we’ve been running a sidebar survey about what losing the federal home solar tax credit means for Electrek readers and how it impacts their solar power plans. After receiving nearly two thousand responses, here’s what you told us.
With the 30% federal home solar tax credit set to expire at the end of this year, homeowners everywhere are showing mixed reactions. And, in the case of nearly 30% of our readers, a sense of urgency. Nearly four in ten (38.7%) of our solar survey responders said that they were “deeply concerned” about the credit ending, and moving up plans to install a home solar system before the credit is gone.
That response suggests the industry could see a meaningful surge of demand in the final quarter of the year as households look to lock in tax benefits while they still can.
Another 19.2% said they were aware of the credit, but it wasn’t a major factor in their solar plans one way or the other (if you’re curious, I fall into this second category).
Meanwhile, 16.4% of Electrek survey respondents admitted they had no idea there even was a 30% federal solar credit. That fact, while frustrating, serves to highlight the need for better public awareness around both clean energy incentives, and the potential benefits to adding solar power to your home.
Interesting, but does it matter?
That said, it’s important to consider the source here. Electrek readers tend to be more educated in general than the American public at large to begin with (check out our Partner Program page for some of that demographic data), and you’re certainly more educated and informed about things like EVs, home battery backups, and – of course – solar power.
The general public? The people who don’t read Electrek, don’t follow the cimate tech blogs, and generally have no idea what’s going on in the world of clean energy incentives? Getting rid of a tax credit they don’t even know exists may not move the market one way or the other. And, frankly, I don’t think it will.
What do you guys think? Is the march towards more universal home solar system deployment already too far along to stop, or do you think eliminating the tax incentive will turn off enough people to do the industry in for good? Head to the comments and let us know.
Original content from Electrek, featured image via UCF.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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In a record-setting deal worth billions, Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer XCMG has agreed to deliver more than 200 of its 240-tonne electric haul trucks to Australian mining giants Fortescue in one of the biggest moves yet to decarbonize mining.
From pioneering its “world’s first” best-practice model for smart mining at China Huaneng’s Yimin Mine and winning the 2025 Decarbonizing Mining Award to ranking among the world’s top four open-pit heavy equipment makers, XCMG is rapidly building a reputation for building high-quality electric equipment options that can do all the work without any of the emissions.
Earlier this week, XCMG joined Fortescue, one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, at a grand signing ceremony in Beijing for a strategic cooperation agreement on green mining equipment solutions. Under the terms of the new deal, XCMG will deliver up to 200 of its massive, 240T battery-electric haul trucks to Fortescue, beating a similar deal posted last year and marking China’s largest-ever export order for green mining machinery.
It’s also one of the largest-ever EV sales, period.
Big deal
Fortescue believes the deal isn’t just significant for its size and scope, but for building new global bridges in the quest for full decarbonization.
“The world once benefited from open trade and cooperation – now it is divided,” explains Fortescue Executive Chairman and Founder, Dr. Andrew Forrest. “Fortescue is showing that industry can help glue back that multilateral spirit. Not through rhetoric, but through practical alliances that prove heavy industry can follow a new path – one where profits rise as emissions fall.”
“China is scaling and manufacturing green technologies at unprecedented speed,” adds Forrest. “and “Our partnerships give Fortescue access to that capability.”
As for the trucks themselves, the new XCMG 240T electric haul trucks are absolute giants, built to handle payloads over 500,000 lbs., with a gross vehicle weight rating somewhat north of 380 (!) tonnes (that’s almost 420 Imperial tons, to you and me).
There’s enough power on tap from the big haul trucks’ 1,900 kW (2,550 hp) electric drive system to climb 17% grades and hit speeds up to 56 km/h (35 mph). That’s enough to make XCMG’s 240T one of the most powerful and capable EVs on the planet, slashing emissions without sacrificing hauling performance.
With Fortescue already saving hundreds of millions in fuel costs, this deal – big as it – is going to put an absolutely massive dent in global diesel demand.
SOURCES: Fortescue, Yahoo! Finance.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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