Trump touts US Steel-Nippon deal, but offers few details about merger he once opposed

President Donald Trump on Friday touted a "blockbuster agreement" between U.S. Steel and Japanese company Nippon Steel that he said would keep the iconic U.S. steelmaker in Pittsburgh and invest billions in facilities in several other states -- though he previously opposed such a merger and offered few details on the intricacies of the deal.

Trump discussed the deal during a rally at the Irvin Works in Allegheny County on Friday evening, flanked by steelworkers and big banners reading "American Jobs" and "The Golden Age."

Trump said Nippon would invest a total of $14 billion in U.S. Steel, with some $2.2 billion slotted to increase steel production in Pittsburgh's Mon Valley area and another $7 billion to modernize steel mills, expand ore mines and build facilities in Indiana, Minnesota, Alabama and Arkansas.

Trump emphasized that the U.S. Steel headquarters would stay in Pittsburgh, bringing in more jobs for Americans -- and even promised a $5,000 bonus for every U.S. steelworker.

"There will be no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever," Trump pledged.

Under the terms of the deal, U.S. Steel will maintain all of its current operating blast furnaces at full capacity for a minimum of 10 years, Trump said.

"You're not going to have to worry about that," he said, predicting, "They're going to be here a lot longer than that."

Under the deal, U.S Steel would still be "controlled by the USA," Trump said, adding, "Otherwise, I wouldn't have done the deal." But he did not explicitly say how the ownership of the company would be structured.

In his remarks, Trump portrayed himself as skillful dealmaker, saying he rejected previous offers from Nippon before he said he realized they how much they wanted to invest in America.

"I have to tell you about Nippon," Trump said. "They kept asking me over and I kept rejecting it. 'No way, no way, no way.' And after about four times, I said, 'You know, these people really want to do a great thing. They want they really want it."

Trump first announced the agreement on his conservative social media platform last week. He said it would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the American economy. The "investment," he wrote, would take place over the next 14 months.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to block the Japanese steelmaker from purchasing U.S. Steel. As president-elect, he repeated that vow.

"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 a post to his conservative social media platform in early December.

The Biden administration in January blocked the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel over national security concerns. The White House said at the time it was important to keep one of the largest steel producers in the nation an American-owned company.

The reaction was mixed. The president of the United Steelworkers union, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers, celebrated the move while local leaders expressed concern about U.S. Steel's future in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Weeks after the inauguration, Trump met with U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt at the White House. In early April, he ordered a new national security review of Nippon Steel's proposed bid to acquire U.S. Steel.

Leading up to Friday's rally, the White House had provided few details, other than those mentioned by Trump in his social media post, about the agreement.

Peter Navarro, Trump's trade adviser, insisted on Thursday that U.S. Steel "owns" the company.

"Nippon Steel is going to have some involvement but no control of the company," Navarro told reporters outside the White House, though he didn't take any more questions on the agreement.

Nippon was seeking 100% ownership of U.S. Steel in talks with Trump, Nikkei Asia reported earlier this month.

U.S. Steel issued a brief statement last week in which it said Trump "is a bold leader and businessman who knows how to get the best deal for America."

"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," the company said without sharing more specifics.