Trump hails US Steel-Nippon deal, says steelmaker will be 'controlled by the USA' -- but offers few details
President Donald Trump on Friday touted a "blockbuster agreement" between U.S. Steel and Japanese company Nippon Steel that he said would keep the iconic U.S. steelmaker in Pittsburgh -- though he previously opposed such a merger and offered few details on the specifics of the deal.
Trump discussed the "partnership" between the two companies during a rally at the Irvin Works plant in Allegheny County on Friday evening -- flanked by steelworkers and big banners reading "American Jobs" and "The Golden Age." During the event, Trump also announced his plan to double a current 25% tariff on steel imports to 50%.
Trump told the crowd Nippon would invest a total of $14 billion as part of the deal, with some $2.2 billion slotted to increase steel production in Pittsburgh's Mon Valley and another $7 billion to modernize steel mills, expand ore mines and build facilities in Indiana, Minnesota, Alabama and Arkansas.
Trump emphasized that the U.S. Steel headquarters would stay in Pittsburgh, bringing in more jobs for Americans -- and even promised a $5,000 bonus for every U.S. Steel worker.
"There will be no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever," Trump pledged.
U.S. Steel would still be "controlled by the USA," Trump said, adding, "Otherwise, I wouldn't have done the deal." But he did not explicitly say how the ownership of the company would be structured.
Despite hailing the agreement during the rally, Trump later told reporters that he hasn't seen the final details yet.
"I have to approve the final deal with Nippon and we haven't seen that final deal yet," Trump told reporters on the tarmac following the Pittsburgh event. "But they've made a very big commitment, and it's a very big investment."
In his remarks at the rally, the president said U.S. Steel will maintain all of its current operating blast furnaces at full capacity for a minimum of 10 years.
"You're not going to have to worry about that," he said, predicting, "They're going to be here a lot longer than that."
In his remarks at the rally, Trump portrayed himself as a skillful dealmaker, saying he rejected previous offers from Nippon before he said he realized they how much they wanted to invest in the U.S.
"I have to tell you about Nippon," Trump said. "They kept asking me over and I kept rejecting it. 'No way, no way, no way.' And after about four times, I said, 'You know, these people really want to do a great thing. They ... really want it."
Trump first announced the agreement on his conservative social media platform last week. He said it would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the American economy. The "investment," he wrote, would take place over the next 14 months.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to block the Japanese steelmaker from purchasing U.S. Steel. As president-elect, he repeated that vow.
"I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan," Trump wrote in a post to his conservative social media platform in early December.
The Biden administration in January blocked the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel over national security concerns. The White House said at the time it was important to keep one of the largest steel producers in the nation an American-owned company.
MORE: Biden blocks US Steel takeover by Japan-based Nippon
The reaction was mixed. The president of the United Steelworkers union, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers, celebrated the move while local leaders expressed concern about U.S. Steel's future in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Weeks after the inauguration, Trump met with U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt at the White House. In early April, he ordered a new national security review of Nippon Steel's proposed bid to acquire U.S. Steel.
Leading up to Friday's rally, the White House had provided few details, other than those mentioned by Trump in his social media post, about the agreement.
Peter Navarro, Trump's trade adviser, insisted on Thursday that U.S. Steel "owns" the company.
"Nippon Steel is going to have some involvement but no control of the company," Navarro told reporters outside the White House, though he didn't take any more questions on the agreement.
Nippon was seeking 100% ownership of U.S. Steel in talks with Trump, Nikkei Asia reported earlier this month.
U.S. Steel issued a brief statement last week in which it said Trump "is a bold leader and businessman who knows how to get the best deal for America."
"U. S. Steel will remain American, and we will grow bigger and stronger through a partnership with Nippon Steel that brings massive investment, new technologies and thousands of jobs over the next four years," the company said without sharing more specifics.
Trump hails US Steel-Nippon deal, says steelmaker will be 'controlled by the USA' -- but offers few details originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
11 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Elon Musk may be the only person in the world who can criticize Donald Trump in public. For now.
If you come at Donald Trump, he's going to respond. Unless, apparently, you're Elon Musk. Trump hasn't said a word about Musk's public complaints about Trump's budget bill. It's hard to imagine Trump staying silent forever. But even this restraint tells you a lot about the Musk/Trump alliance. A pretty fundamental rule of political physics in our age: If you criticize Donald Trump, he roars back. Which makes what's happening now worth noting: Elon Musk is criticizing Donald Trump, and Trump … isn't responding. As you likely know by now, on Monday afternoon, Musk used his X account to complain about the Republican budget bill — the one that's supposed to be Trump's signature legislation, and the one that's literally called the " One Big Beautiful Bill" act because that's the name Trump likes. More specifically: Musk called the bill " a disgusting abomination." "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it," he added. That story — the richest man in the world, and for at least several months, a key Trump ally, blasting a Trump project in public — dominated Monday's news cycle. Even Fox News had to cover it. And under normal circumstances, Trump would rage back. Not this time, though. Trump has yet to acknowledge Musk's broadside out loud, or on his Truth Social platform. When a Fox News reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt "how mad" Trump would be when he learned about Musk's comments, she had a restrained answer ready: "The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it." And when I asked the White House press office for comment Wednesday morning, they referred me to Leavitt's previous statement. Obvious conclusion: For now, at least, the Trump team is going out of its way not to stoke a feud with Musk. It seems very unlikely that Trump's silence is going to be permanent: Trump loves holding forth in front of the press, so someone's going to ask him about it at some point. Still, this level of what seems to be restraint is remarkable for a man who doesn't usually restrain himself, and who loathes people who poke at him in public. What's happening? For starters, it's worth noting that Trump has already gone through a version of this. Last week, Musk used much more muted language to criticize the same bill in a CBS interview, and those comments also became a news story. And Trump didn't fire back at Musk then, either — even when asked about it at a press conference. It's also worth noting that even though Musk used scathing language to condemn the bill on Monday, he never once criticized Trump directly. That gives both men rhetorical wiggle room: Musk can argue that his problems with the bill have nothing to do with the man who's promoting it. And Trump can lump in Musk's critique along with everyone else who has problems with the bill, including some Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. But it's also likely that the most likely thing is the most likely thing: That Donald Trump has enormous admiration for Elon Musk, and treats him differently than just about anyone else in the world. And that even though Musk has officially left his role as a part-time White House advisor, Trump still wants him on his side.
Washington Post
12 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Join scientists as they drive into hailstorms to study the costly weather extreme
SHAMROCK, Texas — As severe storms once again soak, twist and pelt the nation's midsection, a team of dozens of scientists is driving into them to study one of the nation's costliest but least-appreciated weather dangers: Hail. Hail rarely kills, but it hammers roofs, cars and crops to the tune of $10 billion a year in damage in the U.S. So in one of the few federally funded science studies remaining after Trump administration cuts, teams from several universities are observing storms from the inside and seeing how the hail forms. Project ICECHIP has already collected and dissected hail the size of small cantaloupes, along with ice balls of all sizes and shapes. Scientists in two hail-dimpled vehicles with special mesh protecting the windshields are driving straight into the heart of the storms, an area known as the 'shaft' where the hail pelting is the most intense. It's a first-of-its-kind icy twist on tornado chasing. 'It's an interesting experience. It sounds like somebody on the outside of your vehicle is hitting you with a hammer,' said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, one of the lead researchers. A team of journalists from The Associated Press joined them this week in a several-day trek across the Great Plains, starting Tuesday morning in northern Texas with a weather briefing before joining a caravan of scientists and students looking for ice. The caravan features more than a dozen radar trucks and weather balloon launching vehicles. At each site, the scientists load and unload drones, lasers and cameras and other specialized equipment. There are foam pads to measure hail impact and experimental roofing material. There are even special person-sized funnels to collect pristine hail before it hits the ground and becomes tainted with dirt. Already in treks across Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the team has found hail measuring more than 5 inches (13 centimeters) in diameter — bigger than a softball, but not quite a soccer ball. The team's equipment and vehicles already sport dings, dimples and dents that scientists show off like battle scars. 'We got a few good whacks,' said forensic engineer Tim Marshall, who was carrying roofing samples to see if there were ways shingles could better handle hail. 'I look at broken, busted stuff all the time.' At Tuesday's weather briefing, retired National Weather Service forecaster David Imy pointed to potential hot spots this week in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Computer models show the potential for a 'monster storm down here near the Red River' later in the week, he said. Acting on the latest forecasts, Gensini and other leaders told the team to head to Altus, Oklahoma, but be ready to cross the Red River back into Texas at a moment's notice. A few hours after his briefing, Imy had the opportunity to chase one of the bigger storms, packing what radar showed was large hail at 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) in the air. Because of the warm air closer to the surface, the hail was only pea sized by the time it hit the ground. But the outing still provided good data and beautiful views for Imy, who was with a group that stationed themselves about a half-mile from the center of the storm. 'Beautiful colors: turquoise, bluish green, teal,' Imy said, pointing to the mushroom shaped cloud dominating the sky. 'This is beauty to me and also seeing the power of nature.' This is not just a bunch of scientists looking for an adrenaline rush or another sequel to the movie 'Twister.' It's serious science research into weather that damages a lot of crops in the Midwest, Gensini said. Hail damage is so costly that the insurance industry is helping to pay for the mission, which is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation. 'These are the stones that do the most damage to lives and property,' Gensini said. 'We want the biggest hail possible.' A 2024 study by Gensini found that as the world warms from human-caused climate change, small hailstones will become less likely while the larger ones become more common. The bigger, more damaging ones that the ICECHIP team is studying are projected to increase 15% to 75% this century depending on how much the world warms. That's because the stronger updrafts in storms would keep stones aloft longer to get bigger, but the heat would melt the tinier ones. The experiment is unique because of the combination of driving into the hail and deploying numerous radars and weather balloons to get an overall picture of how the storms work, Gensini said, adding that hail is often overlooked because researchers have considered it a lower priority than other extreme weather events . Outside scientists said the research mission looks promising because there are a lot of unanswered questions about hail. Hail is the No. 1 reason for soaring costs in billion-dollar weather disasters in the United States, said meteorologist Jeff Masters, who cofounded Weather Underground and is now at Yale Climate Connections. 'Now a large part of that reason is because we simply have more people with more stuff in harm's way,' said Masters, who wasn't part of the research. 'Insurance has become unaffordable in a lot of places and hail has become a big reason.' In Colorado, hail is 'actually our most costly natural disaster,' said Lori Peek, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, adding that 'hail does such incredible damage to property.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at .
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
India's Vedanta says Trump's tariffs damaging, seeks import curbs
By Neha Arora (Reuters) -Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's doubling of aluminium tariffs to 50% poses a threat to the Indian industry already struggling with surging imports. Trump's latest round of tariffs on aluminium and steel, which took effect on Wednesday, have unsettled the global markets. "The 50% tariff announced by Trump is damaging to the Indian aluminium industry, which is already under pressure from surging imports that threaten to create surplus and risk to domestic market access," a Vedanta spokesperson told Reuters. The miner, which is the country's largest aluminium producer, urged the Indian government to implement tariffs to protect against imports. "..There should be duty guard-rails for the aluminium industry as well which has so far invested more than $20 billion to set up the current domestic primary aluminium capacity," the spokesperson said. India's cumulative aluminum exports fell 19% to 2.24 million metric tons in the fiscal year ended March 2025, according to government data. Separately, the country's federal steel minister said earlier this week that the impact of Trump's steel tariffs would be minor on the local industry, as India, the world's second-largest crude steel producer, does not export to the U.S. in significant quantities. In April, India imposed a 12% temporary tariff on some steel imports, locally known as a safeguard duty, to curb a surge in cheap shipments primarily from China.
