America Dives Deep for Battery Metals in Trump’s New Resource Strategy
Trump greenlights a controversial push to mine EV battery metals from the ocean floor, igniting geopolitical tensions, legal backlash, and a race against China’s dominance.

The abyssal plains of the Pacific Ocean are no longer a scientific curiosity. They're now a geopolitical battleground, and at the center of it all is President Donald Trump, who’s fast-tracking deep-sea mining as a counterstrike in America’s growing tech war with China. The focus isn’t climate change anymore, it's critical minerals. The kind that powers electric vehicles, sustains the defense sector, and secures economic dominance. It’s a shift in tone, and ambition, that could change the balance of global resource control.
Gerard Barron, the outspoken CEO of The Metals Company, once framed his pitch in climate terms. Back in 2019, at the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority, he spoke of environmental transition and reducing fossil fuel dependency. Fast forward to 2025, and his language has turned hawkish. Now it’s all about American industrial competitiveness and beating China at the supply chain game. It’s no longer about saving the planet, it’s about securing it.
In April, Trump signed an executive order that essentially declared an undersea gold rush. The White House not only departed from the international consensus on seabed mining regulation but issued a challenge to the world: America will mine the ocean floor to secure its future, with or without your approval. That order opened the floodgates. TMC immediately filed the first-ever application to mine the seabed in international waters. Within days, they secured an $85 million investment from a Korean metals company. The stock surged. Wall Street noticed.
