President Donald Trump has announced a planned partnership between U.S. Steel and Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel, which he says will inject $14 billion into the U.S. economy and create at least 70,000 jobs.
The move marks a dramatic shift in Trump’s stance on the controversial deal and comes amid ongoing scrutiny over foreign ownership of a key American industrial symbol.
Trump made the announcement Friday on his social media platform, TruthSocial, stating that the collaboration would maintain U.S. Steel’s headquarters in Pittsburgh and deliver the bulk of the investment within 14 months. He also revealed plans to visit the steel plant next Friday for a rally.
“This will be a planned partnership… not a takeover,” Trump emphasized, though he provided few concrete details on how control would be divided or whether the arrangement differs from the $14.3 billion acquisition proposal blocked by former President Joe Biden in early 2025.
The deal, first proposed in December 2023, has drawn bipartisan opposition over concerns it would cede control of a historic American company to a foreign power.
U.S. Steel, once the crown jewel of American industry, now employs just 14,000 workers nationwide—11,000 of them unionized—and has lost its dominance in the steel sector.
Trump previously echoed Biden’s opposition, saying he would not support the sale of U.S. Steel to a foreign company, only allowing “investment.”
However, in a notable shift this March, the Trump administration signaled openness to the deal by seeking a delay in legal proceedings involving U.S. Steel, Nippon, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals for national security implications.
The CFIUS submitted its recommendation on the deal to Trump this week. Nippon sweetened its bid by pledging a $14 billion investment in U.S. operations, including a proposed $4 billion steel mill, if the deal is approved.
Reaction has been mixed. The United Steelworkers union issued a sharp rebuke, calling the potential sale a “disaster” for workers and national security, urging Trump to block it outright. “We now urge him to act decisively, shutting the door once and for all on this corporate sellout,” the union said in a Thursday press release.
Pennsylvania’s senators offered contrasting views. Republican Dave McCormick praised the move, claiming it would keep U.S. Steel under American control, though he provided no specifics.
Democrat John Fetterman, a vocal critic of the original proposal, called the arrangement a “death sentence” for American steel.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
As the Trump administration weighs its final decision, the fate of a once-mighty American institution—and the livelihoods tied to it—hangs in the balance.
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