President-elect Trump vowed to block Japanese Nippon Steel Corp.’s acquisition of U.S. Steel.
“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 the post on Truth Social on Monday.
He made the same promise on the campaign trail earlier this year.
The Hill has contacted Nippon for comment.
The Japanese firm announced last year that it would acquire U.S. Steel Corp. in a $14.9 billion deal — a move that was sharply criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Nippon asked in September to refile its acquisition bid, a move that put off a decision on approving the deal until after the president election.
The Biden administration said last December that the sale of U.S. Steel deserves “serious scrutiny,” in a post on social media.
The deal also faced pushback from the United Steelworkers union.
“Our concerns are rooted in a wealth of evidence. Nippon Steel has a long history of strategically importing both substrate and finished products into the United States and countries as it offloads its 16 million tons of over-capacity in Japan and China, all to the detriment of American steelmaking and American steelworkers,” David McCall, international president for United Steelworkers, wrote earlier this year.
Trump, in the post, added that “we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again” through tax incentives and tariffs.
The president-elect’s latest tariff threats, which include enacting tariffs of 25 percent on all Canadian and Mexican goods, and add another 10 percent tariff to all Chinese goods, have earned the ire of the country’s trading partners and concern from experts.
