‘We don’t want to see it go to Japan,’ Trump said on Wednesday, adding ‘We love Japan.’
President Donald Trump said on April 9 that he does not want to see U.S. Steel Corp go to Japan, potentially suggesting he won’t support Japan-based Nippon Steel’s bid for the American steel manufacturer.
Trump on Monday signed a memorandum directing a national security panel to conduct a new review of Nippon Steel’s $14 billion bid for U.S. Steel to evaluate the deal’s potential national security risks and provide the president with recommendations within 45 days.
In early January, then-President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel from acquiring U.S. Steel, citing the value of maintaining a domestically owned steel industry and describing steelmaking as a strategic sector vital to national security and resilient supply chains.
“A strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority,” Biden said at the time.
Shares of U.S. Steel dropped 13 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after Trump’s latest comment.
“We don’t want to see it go to Japan,” Trump said on Wednesday, adding, “We love Japan.”
“We don’t want it to go to Japan or any other place, and we’re working with them,” the president said.
The Epoch Times contacted the White House to clarify the administration’s stance on the potential merger and did not receive a response by publication time.
After Biden moved to block the merger, U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel sued the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, alleging the former president had affected the committee’s decision and violated their right to a fair review.
After it was first announced in December 2023, the merger received scrutiny from both sides of the political spectrum, particularly as both Trump and Biden were originally slated for a rematch in the November 2024 election. Before Biden dropped out of the race last July, both he and Trump had vowed to block the purchase of U.S. Steel.
Others, including regional leaders in steel-producing areas like Pennsylvania and Indiana, have defended the deal, worried about the risk of losing jobs without fresh capital.
The two companies argued that Biden was against the deal as a candidate for reelection so he could secure the support of the United Steelworkers union in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, the location of U.S. Steel’s headquarters. The Biden administration had defended its review of the merger as critical to protecting security, infrastructure, and supply chains.
In March, the Trump administration filed a motion to lengthen two deadlines in the lawsuit that offer the government additional time to conclude the merger negotiations with the companies.
Then, late on Monday, the administration and the companies asked an appeals court to pause the case until June 5 to give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States time to review the merger again, noting that the process could “fully resolve” the firms’ claims.
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
Chase Smith and Reuters contributed to this report.