US Steel and the Japanese company that had tried to acquire it are suing the Biden administration after the president announced he was blocking a proposed deal for the iconic American manufacturer.
US Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel said in a statement Monday that President Joe Biden “ignored the rule of law” to curry favor with the United Steelworkers, the union that represents many of US Steel’s employees, when he announced Friday that would not allow the acquisition. to pass.
Separately, US Steel and Nippon said they were also suing union president David McCall; as well as the head of a rival Ohio-based mining company, Cleveland-Cliffs, accusing them of illegally coordinating to undermine the transaction.
Nippon Steel had proposed a $14 billion deal to buy US Steel, but the deal, which US Steel executives favored, was bogged down in a national security review by a Treasury Department committee evaluating the proposals. foreign owned.
Ultimately, that committee failed to agree on whether the Nippon property posed a security risk and asked Biden for a final decision. In announcing his veto of the deal, Biden said taking the company out of American hands would undermine critical supply chains and put jobs at risk.
The Treasury committee, as well as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland, are also named in the lawsuit.
“A committee of national security and trade experts determined that this acquisition would create a risk to American national security,” a Biden administration spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “President Biden will never hesitate to protect the security of this nation, its infrastructure, and the resilience of its supply chains.”
McCall, the head of the steelworkers union, said in a statement that he was reviewing the lawsuit.
“By blocking Nippon Steel’s attempt to acquire US Steel, the Biden administration protected vital American interests, safeguarded our national security, and helped preserve a domestic steel industry that supports our country’s critical supply chains,” he said.
Lourenco Goncalves, president, president and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, accused US Steel and Nippon Steel of trying to “play the blame game.”
“Today’s lawsuits against the US government, USW and Cleveland-Cliffs represent a brazen effort to scapegoat others for US Steel and Nippon Steel’s self-inflicted disaster,” a statement from Goncalves read.
“Cleveland-Cliffs and the USW were not the only ones to recognize the adverse national security implications of this acquisition. This deal generated instant bipartisan opposition, including from President Trump, who has vowed multiple times to block the deal.” Gonçalves added.
Following the announcement of the lawsuits on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump, who had expressed opposition to the Nippon deal during his campaign last year, posted on social media about the situation.
“Why would they want to sell US Steel now when tariffs will make it a much more profitable and valuable company?” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Wouldn’t it be nice for US Steel, once the largest company in the world, to lead the way to greatness again? Everything can happen very quickly!