Former President Trump has vowed to block the sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) if he secures a second term in the White House.
“I would block it, I think it would be horrible. If Japan bought U.S. Steel, I would block it immediately. Absolutely,” he said Wednesday at a meeting with the Teamsters union in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, he spoke to reporters.
President Trump did not say how he plans to block the U.S. Steel-Nippon Steel deal.
“We saved the steel industry. Now U.S. Steel is being acquired by Japan. It’s so bad. But, yeah, we want to bring jobs back to this country. Tariffs will allow us to do that. “But we’re going to bring millions of jobs back to our country,” President Trump said.
Nippon Steel announced last year that it would buy U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion, a move that was heavily criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The Biden administration said in December that the U.S. Steel sale merited “intense scrutiny.”
“but, [President Biden] Additionally, an acquisition of this iconic American-owned company by a foreign company (even from a close ally) would be a challenge in terms of the potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability. We think it deserves serious scrutiny,” said Lael Brainard, director of Biden’s National. The Economic Council said in a statement:
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), noting that he lives right next to the U.S. Steel plant in Braddock, vowed at the time to do whatever he could to stop the deal.
“It is completely outrageous that U.S. Steel has agreed to sell itself to a foreign company. Steel has always valued security, both national security and the economic security of the steel community. We will use our platform and position to do whatever we can to stop this overseas sale.”
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