President Donald Trump greets steelworker Brian Pavlack as he speaks at the U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works-Irvin plant, Friday, May 30, 2025, in West Mifflin, Pa. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

WEST MIFFLIN, Pa. — Touting a “blockbuster agreement” between U.S. Steel and Japanese manufacturer Nippon, President Donald Trump visited the Mon Valley Irvin Works plant Friday and boasted how the new partnership would help the Pittsburgh-based company to thrive for years to come.

At the same time, he announced plans to double tariffs on foreign steel coming into the country to 50%, drawing applause from those in attendance.

“You’re going to stay an American company, but you’ll have a great partner,” Trump told the steelworkers gathered for the rally at the West Mifflin plant. “Oh, you’re going to be so happy. There’s going to be a lot of money coming your way.”

Trump praised the manufacturing history of U.S. Steel and predicted the partnership with Nippon would make the company stronger, but few details of the agreement or partnership have been released or how it deviates from an earlier proposal from the Japanese steel manufacturer. The original $14 billion offer from Nippon was rejected last year by then-President Joe Biden, and Trump campaigned against it at the time, saying he would not approve it either.

But Trump said during Friday afternoon’s event that Nippon’s offer got “better and better and better for the workers,” which prompted him to reverse course and give the deal his approval when he announced the partnership on social media May 23.

He said Nippon has pledged a “$14 billion commitment to the future of the company,” including $2.6 billion that will be allocated to Mon Valley plants and another $7 billion for improvements elsewhere in the country.

“You know, these people really want to do a great thing,” Trump said about Nippon’s promises to invest in numerous U.S. Steel plants in America, including in Western Pennsylvania. “They really want it. They’re putting up billions of dollars.”

That was welcome news to Washington, Pennsylvania, Mayor Jojo Burgess, who works at the nearby U.S. Steel Clairton Mill Works and has been a proponent of the Nippon deal since meeting with several Mon Valley mayors and company officials last year.

“I think that the deal will be good for us,” Burgess said. “Now, there will be some concerns. When you talk about mergers, you gotta look at pension plans and make sure everyone is protected.”

Burgess, who was a vocal supporter of Biden over the past four years, attended Trump’s rally with mayors from Braddock, Clairton, West Mifflin, North Braddock and Munhall to listen to the president’s remarks. He thinks the deal is likely very similar to the previous one that Biden rejected and Trump disapproved of, but he is still happy that there would be the partnership to help preserve the company.

“Just because I supported President Biden doesn’t mean I’m not going to thank someone who did what was needed,” Burgess said. “It would have been nice if (Trump) would have supported it back then. But with this (president), it needs to be his plan. … We walked this trail six months ago.”

However, there appears to be a growing rift between the rank-and-file union workers and the leadership of the United Steelworkers, which asked Trump to block the partnership. Burgess said he received little information from top union leaders, which frustrated him and other workers as they pushed for the deal to go through.

“You’re never going to please everyone,” Burgess said. “You’ll have someone who is skeptical. You’ve got to have all the facts on the table. I believe in listening and then making a decision off that.”

Burgess said he has spoken to workers from a Nippon-owned manufacturing operation in Follansbee, and they have been pleased with the company. He thinks the billions of dollars in investment at the Mon Valley plants will lead to growth in the towns that rely on them for jobs and tax revenue.

“Maybe there’s a bigger picture that I’m missing, but the Mon Valley needs this deal,” Burgess said. “An investment in our mills is an investment in our communities, because people start building things around that big production.”

He added that the partnership will ensure that U.S. Steel’s headquarters will remain in Pittsburgh, although it was not yet known what the makeup of the company’s board would look like.

“You’ll have control and maintain control,” he said.

Before speaking to the hundreds of people gathered for the event – most were steelworkers, although the event was also open to limited members of the public – Trump received a tour of the plant from workers.

The president’s visit also brought scores of supporters out to Allegheny County Airport as they dodged raindrops while waiting for the motorcade to rumble by on its way to the Irvin Works about 2 miles down the road. In a parking lot across from the airport, Michael Bulebush of Coraopolis pulled up in his pickup truck as he spoke to other Trump supporters as they anticipated the motorcade’s arrival.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Bulebush said of the partnership with Nippon. “The president is making deals. It’s good to have a president who is engaged.”

But he still had questions about the deal itself since so few details about the partnership have been released. He wondered if the original proposal of Nippon’s total control of U.S. Steel had been softened, or if Trump’s recent tariff threats prompted the Japanese company to sweeten the offer a bit.

“I would like to know (more),” he said. “It would be good to know (the details). I wonder if there’s something to do with the tariffs.”

He didn’t have qualms with Trump reversing course on his disapproval of the acquisition during the campaign only to announce last week that some form of the agreement would be going through.

“I think people’s minds change as they get better data,” Bulebush said. “That’s politics. Everyone’s opinions change.”

A few feet away, Heather Michaels of Munhall was standing on the side of Camp Hollow Road with a large Trump 2024 campaign flag waving at motorists and urging them to honk their horns as she awaited the president’s motorcade to pass. She said her mother worked at

the U.S. Steel plant in neighboring Clairton for 30 years, so the president’s visit was “very personal” to her, and she hoped the partnership with Nippon would keep what’s left of the local industry intact.

She also was not concerned by Trump’s previous viewpoints during the campaign in which he disapproved of the acquisition because she believed he likely was given advice from his closest advisers to allow it to proceed.

“I’m sure a lot of people … talked to him about it,” Michaels said. “If you move forward and allow the merger, then the (steel) jobs will stay here in the region.”