President Donald Trump said Friday that Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. will no longer seek to fully own United States Steel Corp., but it will “invest heavily” in the struggling U.S. producer.

At a joint press conference at the White House following a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Trump said multiple times that the company planning to make the investment was Nissan Motor Co. A U.S. official later confirmed that Trump mistakenly referred to Nippon Steel as the Japanese automaker.

Combined photo shows the logos of Nippon Steel Corp. and United States Steel Corp. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

“I like the idea. U.S. Steel is a very important company to us,” Trump said, adding he will “mediate” a deal between the U.S. and Japanese companies.

“I didn’t want it purchased, but investment I love,” he said.

While the specifics of the plan remain unclear, Trump said he is excited about a meeting with Nippon Steel’s executives next week. The Tokyo-headquartered company refused to comment on the president’s announcement.

Both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden repeatedly opposed the sale of the embattled U.S. steelmaker to Nippon Steel. Biden’s blocking of the $14.1 billion deal between the steelmakers in early January, citing security concerns, prompted the companies to file lawsuits to overturn his decision.

The surprising and confusing announcement came a day after Trump reportedly met with U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt at the White House.

At the outset of the first in-person meeting with Ishiba, Trump said he would discuss the blocked acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel with the prime minister.

Ishiba later said, “It is not an acquisition. It is an investment. By doing so, we can add Japanese technology to make better products” in the United States to be sold not only in the two countries but to the whole world.

“It is not a one-sided relationship where one side benefits from the other,” he said. “The president and I strongly shared this understanding. I believe that this was a major achievement today.”

Nippon Steel, the world’s fourth-largest producer, and U.S. Steel, the 24th largest, announced the deal in December 2023.

U.S. Steel and its shareholders were supportive of the takeover, which would make it more competitive globally and create the world’s third-largest steelmaker by volume.

During the 2024 presidential election cycle, both Biden and Trump stated that U.S. Steel should remain in domestic hands, a view shared by the leadership of the powerful United Steelworkers union.

Following the summit, the labor union’s President David McCall said it has had no contact with either steelmaker or the Trump administration regarding the planned investment.

“However, our concerns regarding Nippon’s continued interest in U.S. Steel remain unchanged,” McCall said in a statement. “While we await the details of the proposed investment, we encourage President Trump to continue safeguarding the long-term future of the domestic steel industry by instead seeking American alternatives.”

Founded in 1901, U.S. Steel was once a symbol of American economic prowess, but it has struggled to keep up with competition from foreign rivals.

Earlier this week, Takahiro Mori, Nippon Steel’s vice chairman, who played a central role in negotiating the takeover bid, told reporters in Tokyo that the Japan-U.S. summit could provide an “opportunity to pave the way” for breaking the stalemate.

Both U.S. Steel and the powerful union are based in Pennsylvania, which was a key battleground state in the Nov. 5 presidential election, and the planned acquisition became highly political.

Under Biden’s presidency, a panel of federal agencies could not reach a consensus on whether to greenlight the initial deal, leaving the final decision to him, with some making the case that the proposed buyout by the leading company from Japan, a close U.S. ally, would strengthen rather than undermine national security.

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