Financial Times is reporting Saturday that Ukraine has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to take a 50% ownership stake in Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for continued US defense and budgetary aid. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with President Zelensky Wednesday to review a draft deal, but no details were given. Bessent reportedly handed Zelensky the written proposal to consider, but no other details were given. It appears still early in the negotiations, however. “We are still talking,” Zelensky said from Munich Saturday. “I have had different dialogues.” The thrust of Trump’s complaint about Ukraine and plans to rectify the situation was seen in his earlier comments, saying, “We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earth (minerals). We want what we put up to go in terms of a guarantee. We want a guarantee. We’re handing them money hand over fist.” “I want to have security of rare earth. We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth, and I want security of the rare earth (minerals). And they’re willing to do it,” he had explained. Trump and top officials later articulated that the US wants a guarantee of $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s estimated trillion dollars of rare […]