President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will be doubling tariffs on imported steel, from 25 percent to 50 percent.
Trump’s announcement came at U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where he held a rally celebrating the “planned partnership” between U.S. Steel and Japanese company Nippon Steel to keep U.S. Steel in America.
“Today, I have a major announcement, and are you ready to hear this?” Trump asked the crowd, drawing cheers.
“We are going to be imposing a 25 percent increase–we’re going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States,” Trump said. “Nobody’s going to get around that.”
He noted that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and other “great geniuses” in the administration helped devise the plan.
He quipped that the partners in the deal, U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel, who are forecasted to add $14 billion to the U.S. economy, are elated with the announcement.
“I believe that this group of people that just made this investments right now are very happy, because that means that nobody is going to be able to steal your industry,” Trump stated.
“At 25 percent, they can sort of get over that fence. At 50 percent, they can no longer get over the fence. So congratulations to everybody and to you for making a great deal. You just made a better deal,” Trump added.
He also noted he had spoken with the group about raising tariffs and asked them whether they preferred hiking from 25 percent to 40 percent or 50 percent.
They said, ‘We’ll take 50.’ I said, ‘I had a feeling you were gonna say that,’” he joked.
Trump gave special congratulations to U.S. Steel President David Burrit, whom he noted earlier in his remarks “more than saved the company.”
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