President Donald Trump told an enthusiastic crowd of Pennsylvanians Friday that he was doubling tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, as he seeks to protect domestic production of the metal that made Pittsburgh famous.
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Trump posted on Truth Social May 30, “It is my great honor to raise the Tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50%, effective Wednesday, June 4th. Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
When Trump announced the tariffs to a Pittsburgh crowd of U.S. Steel workers, the crowd enthusiastically cheered him, The Independent reported. Trump even has a new partnership deal with Japan’s Nippon Steel, all part of his goal to “even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody is going to get around that.”
TRUMP PROTECTS AMERICAN STEEL 🇺🇸
“We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We’re going to bring it from 25% to 50%—the tariffs on steel into the United States of America—which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States.” –President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ASaAjXxLDE
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2025
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Trump insisted that the deal with the Japanese company will help instead of hurt the independence of U.S. Steel and its success. “We’re here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company,” he framed the partnership. He hopes it will “create and save over 100,000 American jobs.”
On Truth Social after the steel plant visit, Trump also clarified that he aims to strengthen the domestic steel industry not only for Americans’ sake, but to undermine the industry in Communist China, the country where so many American companies have moved their operations, even though it is reliant on slave/abusive labor and run by our number one enemy, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The president posted photos of his visit to the West Mifflin steel works (including one of him receiving a gold hard hat from workers) and stated emphatically, “We don’t want America’s future to be built with shoddy steel from Shanghai—we want it built with the strength and the pride of Pittsburgh!”
This would seem to be exactly the sort of effort that Pennsylvania voters anticipated when they voted for Trump in the 2024 election, and which will, one hopes, secure Pennsylvania to Trump and the GOP in future elections. Joe Biden, of course, did the exact opposite, hurting the steel industry. Interestingly, Biden also blocked the Nippon deal. It remains to be seen whether the deal as negotiated under Trump will be a win or not.
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In the classic film “The Quiet Man,” where a Yankee returns from Pittsburgh to his Irish birthplace, a film made at the height of America’s industrial and military fame, tiny Barry Fitzgerald’s character asks towering John Wayne, “Saints preserve us, what do they feed you Irishmen on in Pittsburgh?” The answer: “Steel.”
May Americans feed on steel once again!
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