Trump Talks Tariffs, Trade and US Steel at US-Japan News Conference
February 7, 2025
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3:57Now PlayingTrump Talks Tariffs, Trade and US Steel at US-Japan News Conference
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as posted by the channelPresident Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke at a wide-ranging news conference where they touched on tariffs, energy exports and the blocked deal to take over US Steel. Bloomberg's Michael Shepard reports.
US President Donald Trump indicated Nippon Steel Corp. is considering investing in United States Steel Corp. instead of an outright purchase of the company, offering a potential resolution to a clash over the Japanese firm’s contentious bid to buy the iconic American company.
Trump actually repeatedly referenced automaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. as the interested party, though the context of his comments suggested he was discussing Nippon’s so far unsuccessful bid for the US steel manufacturer.
“Nissan is going to be doing something very exciting about US Steel, will be looking at an investment rather than a purchase,” Trump said Friday at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“US Steel is a very important company to us, the greatest company in the world for 15 years, many years ago, 80 years ago, and we didn’t want to see that leave, and it wouldn’t actually leave, but the concept psychologically not good.”
“They’ve agreed to invest heavily in US Steel as opposed to own it, and that sounds very exciting,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came after he met with Ishiba, addressing the $14.1 billion sale that became a political flash point in the 2024 US presidential election and has rattled ties between the US and Japan, two normally stalwart allies.
Earlier in the Oval Office, asked if he changed his mind on the deal, Trump replied: “No, I think we’re going to be discussing that today. No, I haven’t, and I hear we’ll have some pretty good information on that.” He didn’t elaborate further.
Former President Joe Biden formally blocked the deal in January after a national review panel deadlocked in its risk assessment, kicking the matter to his desk.
Trump also regularly vowed to block the deal during his campaign, saying he did not like the idea of selling an iconic American firm headquartered in a politically important state to a foreign buyer. Vice President JD Vance also opposed the deal, which saw Nippon Steel outbid Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., based in Ohio, the state he represented in the US Senate.
Since taking office, though, Trump had been more muted on the deal, leading some of its proponents to see a path forward.
Trump has also downplayed the need to sell US Steel, saying he plans on imposing tariffs that will support the domestic industry, though he has not said when — or at what rate — he would impose those trade levies.
Trump’s comments also followed a meeting he held with US Steel CEO Dave Burritt on Thursday. Burritt has warned that blocking the sale would imperil thousands of jobs and raise questions about whether the company’s head office could remain in Pittsburgh, known as the Steel City, a place with long historical links to the industry.
Nippon Steel and US Steel are challenging Biden’s decision to block their deal in court and the Japanese firm has expressed hope that the deal can still proceed. Earlier this week, Nippon Steel and US Steel filed an opening brief that claimed Biden unfairly prejudged their merger and didn’t give the companies a chance for feedback on a “sham” national security review before he blocked the deal.
Cleveland-Cliffs had signaled that it’s still interested in US Steel should the current deal formally collapse.
Proponents argue that the sale of US Steel to a company from an allied country, would help bring investment to the American firm’s aging mills, support a rebirth of the sector in the US and create a powerhouse with the scale to compete with Chinese counterparts.
Critics, though, say it would weaken union protections for steelworkers, potentially open the US to a flood of foreign-made steel and weaken the efficacy of trade actions to bolster the rest of the industry.
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