By LAUREN JESSOP

The Center Square

HARRISBURG — What’s next for U.S. Steel after its $14 billion merger?

It’s either the golden age or a clever mirage, depending on who gets asked. That’s because the final details, while still scant, don’t satisfy critics about the iconic Pittsburgh company’s new partnership with Japanese-owned Nippon Steel.

What is known is that on Friday, President Donald Trump took a victory lap in West Mifflin to celebrate the agreement, surrounded by mill workers, labor unions and state and congressional lawmakers. Calling it the most significant investment in the history of the American steel industry, the president said it will ensure “the best and strongest steel in America will forever be made in America and made in Pennsylvania.”

It’s also an about-face for the 47th commander- in-chief. When Nippon first approached U.S. Steel for an acquisition deal 18 months ago, Trump and then-President Joe Biden said the federal government should block it. Both wanted to keep the company domestically owned and operated, though the latter said unfair trading practices on the foreign market would hurt national security.Biden eventually stopped the sale in the waning days of his administration.

Six months later, at the pleading of state and congressional leaders worried about the economic and psychological fallout of losing U.S. Steel’s Pittsburgh headquarters, Trump said Nippon’s renewed promises took care of the workers most of all.

As part of its commitment, Nippon will invest $2.2 billion to increase steel production in southwestern Pennsylvania, including $200 million in a planned Advanced Technology Research and Development Center.

Trump said another $7 billion is earmarked to modernize steel mills, expand ore mines, and build facilities in Indiana, Minnesota, Alabama, and Arkansas.

The bulk of expenditures would be made in the next 14 months, he said, and it will create and save over 100,000 American jobs, including 14,000 in Pennsylvania.

As part of the deal, U.S.

Steel will maintain all its current operating blast furnaces at full capacity for at least the next 10 years.

For critics of the deal, the timing of the investments is suspicious.

The United Steelworkers Union noted the scant details of the “partnership” sound the same as what was proposed in December 2023 in a deal the organization said would move jobs south to avoid collective bargaining. The 14-month timeline touted by the president aligns closely with the end of its current member contract, the union said.

“Throughout recent months, as the public conversation has turned to Nippon ‘investing’ in U.S. Steel or ‘partnering with’ U.S. Steel, Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel’s facilities if it owned the company outright,” the union said. “We’ve seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.”The union represents 850,000 workers across the country, including some from Nippon, of which 4,000 work in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Virginia and West Virginia.

“We also cannot confirm how much of the publicly claimed $14 billion in proposed investment would be directed to our union-represented plants, or how much of that sum would go toward genuinely new capital improvements as opposed to routine repair and maintenance,” the union’s statement said.

“Further, Nippon has not disputed reports that suggest up to $4 billion of the $14 billion would be earmarked for greenfield operations — and our members already know that our plants are not “greenfields,” and generally that means nonunion.”

The skepticism, however, was nowhere to be found on Friday in West Mifflin, where the crowd of steel workers cheered when Trump announced there would be no layoffs or outsourcing, and every worker would soon receive “a well-deserved $5,000 bonus.”

The president also emphasized how tariffs protect the American steel industry, stating he would be increasing steel tariffs from 25% to 50%, and that U.S. Steel will maintain control as an American company.

Praising their role in shaping the deal, Trump brought several local union leaders up to the podium.

Second-generation steel worker and president of USW Local 2227, Jack Maskil, said he researched and spoke with executives to get the answers they needed and then dug in.“The chance for a significant investment was something I knew we couldn’t afford to lose,” he said. “It meant jobs in the valley for generations.”

The local’s vice president, Jason Zugai, is also a third-generation U.S.

Steel employee. He said he knew there would be obstacles in standing up for the workers in the Mon Valley, and that they could have given up at any given point.

“But we are steel workers, and giving up just isn’t something we do,” he said.

U.S. Steel’s President and CEO David Burritt called it a new beginning, and said that with the right partner, the company are ready to build something better and bigger.

He took the opportunity to introduce Takahiro Mori, Nippon Steel’s executive vice president and vice chairman, explaining the two have forged a friendship over the past year and a half.

“I’ve seen firsthand Mr.

Mori respects U.S. Steel.

He respects our legacy, and he respects our purpose.”

Takahiro Mori, executive vice president and vice chairman for Nippon, told the crowd the company will begin making the massive investments that will transform U.S.

Steel on the world stage.

“You have placed your trust in us, and we will work hard in the years ahead to keep earning that trust,” he said.

Among the officials in attendance, and recognized by President Trump, were U.S.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer; Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser and Guy Reschenthaler; and Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Greensburg. “The Golden Age of America has only just begun, and together, we are going to make America great again, greater than ever before,” Trump said.