West Miflin, Pennsylvania – President Donald Trump said on Friday that he doubled the tariff rate to 50 %, a dramatic increase that could increase the high prices of metal used to make housing and other commodities.
Trump spoke at the Mon Valley Works-Works factory in the United States in West Miflin, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg to discuss the investments made by Nippon Steel in Japan.
The price of steel products has increased by approximately 16 % since Trump became president, according to the government price index.
Trump said that the United States will remain an American company under the Japan -based Nippon deal to invest in the iconic American steel maker. Some details about the deal have been announced.
“We are here today to celebrate a wonderful agreement that guarantees that this American company that was placed in an American company,” Trump said, opening an event in a US warehouse near Pittsburgh. “An American company will remain, do you know that, right?”
Trump said that doubling the customs tariffs on imported steel “will secure the steel industry in the United States”, but such an exciting increase can push prices up.
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Employees, Trump supporters, local officials and others filled one of the huge warehouses on the basis of the Erfin Fair to hear Trump. The giant American flags were suspended from the ceiling and reading a sign, the “Golden Age”. Steel workers in orange hard hats and workwear were mill, and part of the cement floor in the warehouse packed with huge files of glossy steel produced in the factory and used for other devices, doors and applications.
Although Trump initially pledged to prevent the Japanese steel maker’s attempt to buy the United States Steel its headquarters in Pittsburgh, he changed the path and announced an agreement last week for what he described as “partial ownership” by Nippon. However, it is not clear, if the deal that helped its administration has been completed or how the ownership is organized.
Trump stressed that the deal will maintain American control over the floors company, which is seen as a political symbol and an important issue of the supply chain in the country, and industries such as car manufacturing and national security.
Trump, who has been keen to conclude deals and announce new investments in the United States since the restoration of the White House, is trying to satisfy voters, including blue -collar workers, who elected him and called for the protection of American manufacturing.
The United States has publicly not transferred any details of a deal that was renewed for investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approved by the proposed “partnership”, but also did not reveal the terms of the arrangement.
The government and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which the American steel Nippon will buy and spend billions of billions on US steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company will be supervised by an executive suite and a council consisting of most of them Americans and their reserves in the US government in the form of a “golden share”.
In the absence of clear details or confirmation from the companies concerned, the United Solid Workers Union, which has long opposed the deal this week, asked whether the new arrangement makes “any meaningful change” from the initial proposal.
“Nippon has constantly maintained that it will invest only in the US -Steel facilities if it owns the company directly,” Al -Ittihad said in a statement. “We have not seen anything in the reports in the past few days, indicating that Nippon has returned from this situation.”
Union steel workers said that there is some opinion divided into the ranks of Nippon Steel, but these feelings have turned over time as they became more convinced that the American steel will eventually close the plants of the Pittsburgh region.
Keleford Hammonds, a feeder in the factory in which Trump spoke, said at least that the deal would help upgrade the aging factory and help in increasing production.
“He returns the money to the factory to help rebuild it, because this factory is old, it is collapsing. We are not really producing as much as we should be because this place is old. It is collapsing. We need a kind of investment to fix the machines that we have worked on.”
Other members of the United States Steel Union said that the employment of new employees was difficult due to the uncertainty about the Nippon Steel deal and the future of plants.
Regardless of the conditions, the issue is of great importance for Trump, who said last year repeatedly that he would prevent the deal and foreign ownership of the American steel, as former President Joe Biden did.
President Donald Trump is speaking at the Wadi Valley Factory, USA, on Friday, May 30, 2025, in West Miflin, Pennsylvania.
(AP Photo/David Dermer)
Trump promised during the campaign to make the activation of American manufacturing a priority from his second term in office. The fate of the United States, which was once the largest company in the world, could become a political responsibility in the renewed renewal elections for its Republican party in Pennsylvania, and other fighting countries that depend on industrial manufacturing.
Trump said on Sunday that he would not agree to the deal if the United States did not remain steel under the control of the United States and said he would keep his headquarters in Pittsburg.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Republican Pennsylvania Dan Mizers described the arrangement “accurately investment and strategic partnership where he owns America, the American run and is still in America.”
However, Meuser said he had not seen this deal and that he was “still organized.”
Republican Senator in Pennsylvania, David McC Corc Cormaker, described the plan as a “wonderful” for the local steel industry, Pennsylvania, national security personnel and United States Steel employees. Initially, the first proposal for Nippon Steel to purchase Steel Us for $ 14.9 billion after announcing it in late 2023.
In recent days, Trump and other American officials have begun describing the new Nippon Steel commitment to investing $ 14 billion in addition to his offer of $ 14.9 billion, including building a new electric furnace factory somewhere in the United States in the United States
The other Senator in Pennsylvania, Democrat John Vitirman – who lives across the street from the American steel furnace – has not explicitly supported the new proposal. But he said he helped disturb the original Nippon Steel until “Nippon sought an additional 14 billion dollars.”
The governor of state Josh Shapiro, a democratic seen as a possible presidential candidate, has publicly avoided in support of a deal but said this week that he was “optimistic about”.
“Eclipate” on the deal, although there are no details. He said he would provide thousands of jobs for his community.
The Associated Press Euri Kajiaa’s author in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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