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Japan Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Japan Today
Trump holding Pennsylvania rally to promote deal for Nippon Steel to 'partner' with U.S. Steel
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MARC LEVY President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday to celebrate a details-to-come deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel, which he says will keep the iconic American steelmaker under U.S.-control. Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmaker's bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as 'partial ownership' by Nippon. It's not clear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalized or how ownership would be structured. Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the country's supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security. Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the U.S. since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect U.S. manufacturing. U.S. Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed 'partnership' but also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement. State and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy U.S. Steel and spend billions on U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the U.S. government's veto power in the form of a 'golden share.' In the absence of clear details or affirmation from the companies involved, the United Steelworkers union, which has long opposed the deal, this week questioned whether the new arrangement makes 'any meaningful change' from the initial proposal. 'Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel's facilities if it owned the company outright,' the union said in a statement. 'We've seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.' Unionized steelworkers say there is some split opinion in the ranks over Nippon Steel's acquisition, but that opinion has shifted over time as they became more convinced that U.S. Steel would eventually shut down their Pittsburgh-area plants. Clifford Hammonds, a line feeder at the Irvin finishing plant where Trump was speaking, said at the very least the deal will help upgrade an aging plant that doesn't produce nearly as much as it should. 'It's putting money back into the plant to help rebuild it, because this plant is old, it's falling apart. We ain't really producing as much as we should be because, like I said, this place is old. It's falling apart. We need some type of investment to fix the machines that we've got working,' Hammonds said. Other U.S. Steel union members said recruiting new employees has been difficult because of the uncertainty around the Nippon Steel deal and the future of the plants. The White House did not offer any new details Thursday. U.S. Steel did not respond to messages seeking information. Nippon Steel also declined to comment. No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of U.S. Steel, as did former President Joe Biden. Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalization of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of U.S. Steel, once the world's largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing. Trump said Sunday he wouldn't approve the deal if U.S. Steel did not remain under U.S. control and said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh. In an interview on Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Dan Meuser called the arrangement 'strictly an investment, a strategic partnership where it's American-owned, American run and remains in America.' However, Meuser said he hadn't seen the deal and added that "it's still being structured.' Pennsylvania Republican Sen. David McCormick came out in favor of the plan, calling it 'great' for the domestic steel industry, Pennsylvania, national security and U.S. Steel's employees. A bipartisan group of senators, joined by then-Senate candidate McCormick, had opposed Nippon Steel's initial proposed purchase of U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion after it was announced in late 2023. In recent days, Trump and other American officials began touting Nippon Steel's new commitment to invest $14 billion on top of its $14.9 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the U.S. Pennsylvania's other senator, Democrat John Fetterman — who lives across the street from U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Steel Works blast furnace — didn't explicitly endorse the new proposal. But he said he had helped jam up Nippon Steel's original bid until 'Nippon coughed up an extra $14B.' The planned 'golden share' for the U.S. amounts to three board members approved by the U.S. government, which will essentially ensure that U.S. Steel can only make decisions that'll be in the best interests of the United States, McCormick said Tuesday on Fox News. Gov Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is seen as a potential presidential candidate, had largely refrained from publicly endorsing a deal but said at a news conference this week that he was 'cautiously optimistic' about the arrangement. In an interview published Thursday in the conservative Washington Examiner, Shapiro said: 'The deal has gotten better. The prospects for the future of steelmaking have gotten better.' Chris Kelly, the mayor of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel's Irvin finishing plant is located, said he was 'ecstatic' about the deal, though he acknowledged some details were unknown. He said it will save thousands of jobs for his community. 'It's like a reprieve from taking steel out of Pittsburgh,' he said. Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
Vance says Russia was 'asking for too much' in its initial Ukraine peace offer
By MICHELLE L. PRICE U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that Russia was 'asking for too much' in its initial peace offer as the United States looks to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine. The vice president, speaking at a Washington meeting hosted by the Munich Security Conference, did not elaborate on Moscow's terms, but said he was not pessimistic about the possibility of a peace deal. That is a more sanguine assessment than President Donald Trump's recent skepticism that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to end the war that begin in February 2022 when Russia invaded. 'I wouldn't say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution,' Vance said. 'What I would say is right now: the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think they're asking for too much,' he said. Vance did not repeat any of the criticisms of Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Vance had aired during an Oval Office blowup in February with the Ukrainian leader, and he made a point of saying the U.S. appreciated Ukraine's willingness to have a 30-day ceasefire. But the Republican vice president, citing Russia's unwillingness on that point, said the U.S. would like to move past that and have the Russian and Ukrainian leaders sit down directly to negotiate a long-term settlement that would end the fighting. 'What the Russians have said is, 'A 30-day ceasefire is not in our strategic interests.' So we've tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the, what would a long-term settlement look like,' Vance said. Vance's talk at the conference event followed his appearance at the organization's February summit in Germany, where he ruffled feathers for his comments that free speech is 'in retreat' across Europe. Vance addressed that Wednesday and said his comments applied to the U.S. under Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, just as they did to Europe. 'It's not 'Europe bad, America good.' It's that I think that both Europe and the United States, we got a little bit off track, and I encourage us all to get back on track together,' he said. On the Middle East, Vance did not shed light on the timing of planned talks between the U.S. and Iran over Iran's nuclear program. He said the Trump administration felt the inspection and enforcement provisions in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated under Democratic President Barack Obama were 'incredibly weak' and 'allowed Iran to sort of stay on this glide path toward a nuclear weapon if they flip the switch and press go.' 'We think that there is a deal here that would reintegrate Iran into the global economy, that would be really good for the Iranian people, but would result in the complete cessation of any chance that they can get a nuclear weapon. And that's what we're negotiating toward,' Vance said. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
01-05-2025
- Automotive
- Japan Today
Musk defends his work as he prepares to wind down at DOGE but gives hazy answers on future
By MICHELLE L. PRICE Elon Musk, preparing to step back from his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency, had a request of the reporters gathered at the White House to interview him: Before he would answer any questions, he wanted someone to tell him a joke. The tech billionaire's request in the Roosevelt Room on Wednesday underscored the surreal and idiosyncratic presence of the world's richest man at the highest echelons of American power. Over the past few months, his work of downsizing the workforce has sent shocks through the federal government and drawn intense pushback, including protests of his electric vehicle company, Tesla. Musing about his and DOGE's incongruous role in the U.S. government, he said, 'It is funny that we've got DOGE." 'Doesn't the absurdity of that seem, like, like, are we in a simulation here or what's going on? But, like, it was a meme coin at one point," he said, laughing. "How did we get here?' Musk, clad in all black but missing the two hats he had worn at Wednesday's earlier cabinet meeting, defended DOGE's work as he prepares to scale back his government role and spend more time at his businesses. But he gave hazy answers about the work he'd been doing and DOGE's future, and he seemed taken aback by the intense backlash he'd encountered. 'Being attacked relentlessly is not super fun," he said. 'Seeing cars burning is not fun,' he added, referring to the instances of Tesla cars being smashed or set on fire. 'In the grand scheme of things, I think we've been effective. Not as effective as I'd like. I think we could be more effective,' Musk said. 'But we've made progress.' DOGE's large-scale slashings have been met with dozens of lawsuits. DOGE's attempts to access sensitive government information, including Social Security data, has similarly met resistance in court. And Democrats this week unveiled an online tracker tallying the federal funds approved by Congress that DOGE has blocked, setting up a constitutional struggle between two branches of government. Musk wouldn't offer examples of anything he'd do differently, though DOGE is nowhere near its original savings goal and has overstated its progress. DOGE had sought to cut spending by $1 trillion. Musk estimates he's cut $160 billion so far and acknowledged it would be hard to get anywhere close to $1 trillion. "It's sort of, how much pain is the cabinet and the Congress willing to take?" Musk said. 'It can be done, but it requires dealing with a lot of complaints.' Musk didn't detail any of those complaints and said he has a good relationship with President Donald Trump's cabinet. But when asked about clashes with certain members, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Musk said, 'at times, there will be some disagreements with the cabinet.' He defended DOGE's attempts to access Americans' personal data, dismissing concerns about a potential 'surveillance state' by quipping, 'Don't we already have a surveillance state?' He said DOGE needs to access the systems in its hunt for fraud, and said, 'There has to be some way to reconcile the improper payments.' He said DOGE has referred cases of suspected fraud to the Justice Department, though he offered few details, including how many referrals were made. Antonio Gracias, a Musk investor working for DOGE, pointed to the indictment last week of an Iraqi man living in New York on charges he illegally voted in the 2020 election. U.S. prosecutors said DOGE assisted in the investigation. Musk acknowledged there were some instances in which they had to restore the jobs of government workers who, in his words, were 'accidentally let go,' like 'some people that were doing important regulatory work or taking care of national parks.' When asked if he's found any areas where he'd recommended efficiencies beyond cuts, Musk veered into the nation's military strategy and said he has repeatedly recommended to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he should be spending more money on hypersonic missiles and long-range drones instead of on crewed systems. Musk said DOGE is also working on improving connectivity for the nation's air traffic control system and reviewing plans to improve its software, but DOGE's primary goal is 'trying to stop wasteful and fraudulent spending." But on other points, he was vague. Who will lead DOGE when he leaves? 'DOGE is a way of life,' he said. 'Like Buddhism.' Will he retain the title of senior adviser to the president? 'I guess.' Will DOGE wrap up its work by July 2026, as originally stated? 'If the president wants us to stick to that date, we'll stick to that date.' How many of the roughly 100 DOGE employees will stay on the job while he winds down? 'Some will stay on. Some will not. So it's up to them. This is basically a volunteer organization.' Is DOGE winding down? 'No, I think it will gain momentum.' Musk struck up a friendship with Trump during the 2024 campaign and spent nearly $300 million on the election — the bulk of which went toward helping the Republican reclaim the White House. He has since become a constant presence with Trump for much of the first 100 days of the administration, regularly traveling with the president to his home in Florida on the weekends. Musk said Wednesday that he was working on DOGE seven days a week during the first months of the administration, at times sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom at Trump's invitation. He declined to say just how many times he had slept at the White House but said the president had implored him to try the caramel ice cream from the kitchen. 'Don't tell RFK,' Musk joked, referring to Trump's Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Musk described it as an 'intense period' during which he was trying to understand and map out the federal government. 'It's a startup, effectively. A new administration is like a startup,' he said. But he said he is now scaling back his work on DOGE, spending one to two days a week on it, and he plans to be in Washington less. 'Now we're getting more of a rhythm so the amount of time that's necessary for me to spend here is much less," he said. He also pointed to the limitation on his status as a special government employee, which means he can only work 130 days in a 365-day time period. He said he will keep his 'tiny' office on the second floor of the West Wing that he said has 'a view of nothing' — a feature, he then remarked, that keeps him safe. 'It's harder to shoot me,' he said. 'There's not a good line of sight.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
