For decades, Washington talked about supply chain resilience. But talk is cheap, and there was little done to achieve it.

Critical minerals strategies gathered dust. Manufacturing know-how drifted offshore. And with respect to copper — the backbone of every military system, data center, and power grid in America — China quietly built the vast majority of the world’s modern smelting capacity. The United States, meanwhile, sat back and watched, relying on just two aging facilities, with one dating back to 1910.