Report: Biden set to reject US Steel deal

​US President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024.
US President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Sept. 2, 2024.
Ting Shen/Pool/Sipa USA
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Joe Biden intends to block Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of US Steel, which had become a potential political sticking point in the November election. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and her opponent Donald Trump have also expressed opposition to the deal, which has been under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. If the committee finds the deal could represent a national security threat, the president then has the authority to block it.

Nippon Steel is playing its hand close to its vest and hasn’t commented on the reports of the deal being blocked. Its nearly $15 billion offer was approved by US Steel shareholders in the spring, and it would be highly unusual for a company from a close ally like Japan to be prohibited from investing in the US.

Shares in US Steel fell by roughly 18% on Wednesday’s news, trading around $29, well under the $55 per share value that Nippon Steel offered in December 2023. The company warned thousands of jobs were at risk in the key — if not downright determinative — swing state of Pennsylvania should the deal fall through. Nonetheless, Democrats are betting that this decision will help them win the state by playing up protectionist bonafides. We’ll see if the theory holds.

More from GZERO Media

There’s a new strain of cybercrime in online retail. It targets consumers going about their everyday business, whether it’s booking flights on a major airline or purchasing concert tickets from their go-to platform. It’s called digital skimming, also known as e-skimming, online card skimming, or web skimming, and it’s the evolution of an older scam known as card skimming. That’s when criminals install equipment on point-of-sale systems or tiny cameras at ATMs or gas pumps to capture card data. With digital skimming, hackers plant malware at online stores to harvest that information. It can be harder than physical skimming to detect, and it can strike more victims at once. Read our explainer to learn more and understand how to stay safe.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk reacts next to Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump during a campaign rally, at the site of the July assassination attempt against Trump, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has thrown his full weight behind former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

FILE PHOTO: Yahya Sinwar, Gaza Strip chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, waves to Palestinians during a rally to mark the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), in Gaza, April 14, 2023.
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo

Ever since 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel, the Jewish state has been on the hunt for the mastermind, the terrorist group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar.

Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. speaks during a press conference as the FBI investigates what they said was an apparent assassination attempt in Florida on Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. September 16, 2024.
REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo