Nippon Steel hires Mike Pompeo in lobbying push for $15bn US Steel bid

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Nippon Steel has hired Donald Trump’s former secretary of state Mike Pompeo to help lobby for its controversial $14.9bn bid for US Steel, which has faced opposition from Republicans and Democrats.

Pompeo — who spoke at the Republican National Convention this week where Trump accepted the party’s nomination as its presidential candidate — will serve as an adviser to Nippon Steel as it attempts to overcome public statements against the deal from Trump and President Joe Biden. Both men are trying to court blue-collar voters in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania in the run-up to November’s election.

“As the former secretary of state, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and US congressman, Mike Pompeo is respected on both sides of the aisle and has an unparalleled grasp of the geopolitical and security issues that America is confronting today,” said Nippon Steel on Sunday.

“We look forward to working alongside him to further emphasise the ways in which Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel bolsters the country’s economic and national security.”

Pompeo is not the only former Trump adviser to advocate for the deal. In a recently published report, Stephen Moore, a former Trump campaign adviser, said “Nippon Steel’s offer to acquire US Steel is an economic win for the US manufacturing industry and the US economy more broadly” and described the deal as a “clear case of ‘friendshoring’ between Japan and the US”.

Biden’s opposition to the deal had sparked concerns in Washington and Tokyo that it could damage relations with Japan, one of the US’s closest allies in efforts to contain China’s military and economic rise.

Senior Japanese government officials are also heavily involved in lobbying for it to go through, according to two people familiar with the situation. Nippon Steel declined to comment on that claim.

Although the deal for Pittsburgh-based US Steel, which was announced in December, has received regulatory approvals outside the US, it has yet to clear a national security review by Washington and faces objections from powerful labour unions.

After Trump lashed out against the “horrible” deal and vowed to block it if he were elected, Biden also declared his opposition to the takeover, saying it was “vital” for the American steel company to remain “domestically owned and operated”.

Nippon Steel, which has pushed back its timeline for completing the deal, remains confident and in May predicted “calmer discussions” with unions after the presidential election.

The company has also said there will be no job cuts and plant closures caused by the merger and that it will move its own US headquarters from Houston to Pittsburgh.

Pompeo’s appointment was first reported by Bloomberg.