President Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba following talks, in the East Room of the White House on Friday.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump delivered an update on U.S.-Japan relations during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House on Friday, announcing that Nippon Steel would be investing “heavily” in U.S. steel rather than acquiring the storied American manufacturer.
The move is a shift from Nippon Steel’s initial pitch to acquire U.S. steel for $14.9 billion, which former President Joe Biden rejected while still in office. Trump also came out against the Japanese company’s offer during his presidential reelection bid.
“U.S. Steel is a very important company to us,” Trump said. “We didn’t want to see that leave – and it wouldn’t actually leave – but the concept, psychologically, not good. So they’ve agreed to invest heavily in U.S. Steel, as opposed to own it.”
On three occasions, Trump referred to Nippon Steel as “Nissan” and said that he would be meeting with the company’s leaders to work out the details of the agreement.
President Trump takes questions from the press alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba from the East Room of the White House on Friday.
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Ishiba said the Japanese spending on U.S. Steel would be part of $1 trillion in investments made by the country in the U.S.
The press conference followed Trump’s meeting with Ishiba in the Oval Office. The Japanese prime minister is just the second international leader to meet with Trump at the White House since he returned to office. Trump first sat down with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
Trump says DOGE will review “just about everything”
The president was also asked by reporters about Elon Musk’s ongoing efforts leading the administration’s federal cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Trump said DOGE would be going through “just about everything,” but singled out reviews of both the Department of Education and the Pentagon.
“I’ve instructed [Musk] to go check out Education, to check out the Pentagon, which is the military, and you know, sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad, but I don’t think proportionally, you’re going to see anything like we just saw.”
Musk has already taken steps to reshape several government departments and agencies. Notably, DOGE has taken steps to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and accessed the payment systems at the Treasury Department.
When asked by reporters if there were areas of the government that Musk wasn’t able to touch, Trump said they “haven’t discussed that much.”
Trump suggested that some areas of government may be off limits to DOGE. “Maybe some high intelligence or something, and I’ll do that myself if I have to, but generally speaking I’ll just say go,” the president said.
