Donald Trump announced he was doubling foreign tariffs on steel imports to 50%, as he celebrated a “blockbuster” agreement for Japan-based Nippon Steel’s to invest in US Steel during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Surrounded by men in orange hardhats, Trump unveiled the tariff rate increase as he spoke at a US Steel plant in West Mifflin, declaring that the dramatic hike would “even further secure the steel industry in the United States”.
“Nobody is going to get around that,” Trump said, of the tariff rate hike from what was 25%. The announcement comes a day after a federal appeals court temporarily allowed Trump’s tariffs to remain in effect staying a decision by a US trade court that blocked the president from imposing the duties.
During his remarks, Trump gloated that the Nippon investment would once again make the American steelmaker “synonymous with greatness” and included protections to “ensure that all steel workers will keep their jobs and all facilities in the United States will remain open and thriving” – prompting the crowd to start a round of “U-S-A!” chants.
Few details have been publicly released, but Trump told the steelworkers in attendance that there was “a lot of money coming your way”.
“You’re going to say, ‘Please, sir, we don’t want this kind of success. It’s too much, sir,’” the president said.
Trump has thrown his full support behind the “partnership” between the Japanese and American steel giants, months after insisting he was “totally against” a $14.9bn bid by Nippon Steel for its US rival.
The president also asserted that the agreement ensured US Steel would remain under American control.
Trump framed the administration’s drive to boost domestic steel production as “not just a matter of dignity or prosperity or pride” but as “above all, a matter of national security”.
He blamed “decades of Washington betrayals and incompetence and stupidity and corruption” for hollowing out the once-dominant American steel industry, as the jobs “melted away, just like butter”.
“We don’t want America’s future to be built with shoddy steel from Shanghai. We want it built with the strength and the pride of Pittsburgh,” he said.
In his remarks at a US steel plant, Trump also repeated many of the false claims that have become a feature of his rallies including the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He gloated over his 2024 victory and, gesturing toward his ear that was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet last year at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, said it was proof that a higher power was watching over him.
He also called on Congress to pass his “one big, beautiful bill,” urging residents to push their Republican congressman and senator to back the bill.
