In a major reversal, President Donald Trump traveled to Pennsylvania on Friday to announce a deal with Japan’s Nippon Steel that would give the U.S. government a controlling role in U.S. Steel under a merger arrangement.
Trump received applause from the assembled steelworkers at U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works plant near Pittsburgh when he announced he would increase his tariffs on imported steel to 50 percent, up from 25 percent.
“For generations, the name United States Steel was synonymous with greatness, and now it will again be synonymous with greatness,” the president said to cheers. “That’s what we’re trying to do — the best and strongest steel on earth will forever be made in America and made in Pennsylvania.”
