President Donald Trump announced a “partnership” between the Japanese Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel, reversing his campaign pledge to block the merger.
The announcement follows an expensive lobbying campaign by the two companies, which announced their intent to merge in December 2023. U.S. Steel has faced financial difficulties in recent years and warned that without the merger, opposed by lawmakers and the steelworkers union, the company would have to move its headquarters out of Pittsburgh, threatening jobs.
“I am proud to announce that, after much consideration and negotiation, US Steel will REMAIN in America, and keep its Headquarters in the Great City of Pittsburgh,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday.
“This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy.”
Trending
While Trump referred to the arrangement as a partnership, Nippon Steel reportedly promised to invest $14 billion in U.S. Steel should the Trump administration greenlight the deal.
Lawmakers from both parties opposed the deal on national security grounds, and the United Steelworkers, which represents many U.S. steelworkers, vehemently opposed the deal. Trump, then-President Joe Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris all said they’d block the deal on the campaign trail.
“I will stop Japan from buying United States Steel,” Trump said on the campaign trail last August. “They shouldn’t be allowed to buy it.”
Biden blocked the merger in January 2025, citing national security concerns. Trump ordered the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct a new review of the national security concerns surrounding Nippon in April.
United Steelworkers president David McCall said in a statement to NOTUS that the union “cannot speculate about the impact of today’s announcement without more information.”
“Our concern remains that Nippon, a foreign corporation with a long and proven track record of violating our trade laws, will further erode domestic steelmaking capacity and jeopardize thousands of good, union jobs,” McCall said.
Trump’s reversal follows an expensive lobbying campaign by both companies for the deal.
Nippon Steel spent more than $1.8 million on federal lobbying in the first three months of 2025 alone, with the vast majority going to the “proposed merger of Nippon Steel and US Steel,” according to federal lobbying disclosures.
U.S. Steel spent $990,000 on federal lobbying during the same period on a range of issues, including the deal. That’s more than they spent in the entirety of 2023, and their lobbying spending shot up to nearly $3.5 million in 2024 as they pressed for the deal to happen.
U.S. Steel called Trump “a bold leader and businessman who knows how to get the best deal for America, American workers and American manufacturing.”
“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,” they said in a statement.
Nippon Steel and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump said in his post that he would hold a rally at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh next Friday.
“For many years, the name, ‘United States Steel’ was synonymous with Greatness, and now, it will be again,” Trump wrote.
—
Taylor Giorno is a reporter at NOTUS.
Author
