How about this? Reject all financial and other aid, cut all electric grid / utility ties to the rest of the USA, then we’ll talk.

There’s some really fun chemistry in the rare-earth magnets - I used to buy them in bulk to enlarge my own IT-workshop collection, which was mostly broken down for Nd salts. Also, the magnets from iMac screens were also plentiful when HDD magnets got small (and then went extinct).

I do kinda like saying “the actual issue was a PICNIC.”