To address these vulnerabilities, the Trump administration will immediately begin implementing the report’s “blueprint for action.” It will rapidly expand the use of already available Defense Department funds to close identified supply-chain gaps. Starting fast out of the gate, the president will sign determinations authorizing the use of funds, set aside in Title III of the Defense Production Act, to expand manufacturing capabilities in such areas as lithium seawater batteries (critical for anti-submarine warfare) and cutting-edge fuel cells (for the Navy’s future unmanned, underwater vehicles).

The Pentagon’s National Defense Stockpile Program, created in 1939 to secure adequate supplies of foreign-produced and limited-source strategic and critical materials, will likewise shift into high gear to help build up reserves in key areas. The broader goal, as the report makes clear, is to “diversify away from complete dependency on sources of supply in politically unstable countries who may cut off U.S. access.”

An essential Pentagon mission will be to further modernize the “organic industrial base” to ensure American leadership in advanced manufacturing across industrial sectors. This government-owned and -operated network of depots, shipyards and arsenals sustains some 440,000 vehicles, 780 strategic missiles, 278 combat ships and almost 14,000 aircraft.

As part of the governmentwide effort, the president is also directing the secretary of labor to more precisely target occupations for current and future growth (e.g., systems engineers, high-skilled tool operators), expand worker training and education programs, and ensure appropriate incentives to recruit and retain workers. The secretary of energy is similarly charged with more aggressively addressing risks to the nation’s manufacturing and industrial base within the energy and nuclear sectors, using funding that will become available in 2019.

America has elected a president in the mold of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan — presidents best remembered for short but profound maxims that directed their boldest strategies and biggest successes.