Japanese-owned Nippon Steel has spent more than $6.1 million on federal lobbying efforts in its quest to take over US Steel, hiring a fleet of well-connected politicos, some of whom have intimate ties to President Donald Trump, the merger’s self-proclaimed mediator.
According to registration records, Nippon Steel retained lobbying powerhouse Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, whose foreign clients include the governments of Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, within days of the acquisition announcement in December 2023. Since then, Nippon Steel has paid Akin Gump over $5.5 million, accounting for approximately 90% of its lobbying expenditures spent on advancing the US Steel deal, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of disclosure data.
Brian Pomper, who advised the Senate Finance Committee on international trade matters; Reginald Babin, former chief counsel to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY); and Hunter Bates, ex-chief of staff for former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), are among the lobbyists at Akin Gump pleading Nippon Steel’s case in the nation’s capital.
Geoffrey Verhoff, another Akin Gump lobbyist commissioned to assist Nippon Steel, was by far Trump’s largest known money bundler during the last election cycle. Verhoff, vice chairman of the Republican National Committee’s finance arm from 2017 to 2021, bundled at least $3.6 million for the Trump 47 Committee, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. Campaign finance statements show Bates also made a $10,000 personal contribution to the Trump 47 Committee while lobbying for Nippon Steel.
Although Akin Gump is the primary lobbying firm listed on Nippon Steel’s roster, a handful of other industry heavyweights with close connections on Capitol Hill have been brought in to help shape sentiments surrounding the merger matter.
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Last year, Akin Gump tapped the Trump-aligned lobbying firm Ballard Partners, a foreign agent representing the Japanese Embassy for a $25,000 monthly fee, to serve as a subcontractor on the Nippon Steel team. A day after the 2024 presidential race, Ballard Partners notably set up a phone call between Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to “discuss the U.S. election,” according to lobbying activity reported under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The agency’s eponymous president, Brian Ballard, also a top Trump fundraiser, heads his Florida firm’s work on the Nippon Steel account. Lobbying alongside him are fellow Trump affiliates Hunter Morgen, who served as a Trump White House policy adviser specializing in trade and manufacturing, and Daniel McFaul, who was part of Trump’s transitional team.
Ballard and Morgen both personally contributed to Trump’s 2024 campaign, with the firm’s founder cutting checks worth $250,000 and $11,600, respectively, to the Trump 47 Committee and Trump Save America PAC.
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Strategic communications firm VOX Global, government affairs consultant Valiant Strategies LLC, and the Gephardt Group‘s government affairs division also lobbied on behalf of Nippon Steel via Akin Gump.
VOX Global’s recently terminated Nippon Steel assignment was spearheaded by James Baril, once a top aide to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), now chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness.
Valiant Strategies founder Filemon Vela, an Akin Gump alum, was in charge of carrying out the firm’s Nippon Steel subcontract, which also ended earlier this year. A former Texas Democratic congressman, Vela was appointed by former President Joe Biden to be vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and served as deputy head of the U.S. delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly.
The Gephardt Group’s namesake CEO, Richard Gephardt, a former U.S. House Democratic leader who was on US Steel’s board of directors, reportedly worked to persuade Pittsburgh’s influential United Steelworkers union, an outspoken opponent of US Steel’s sale.
According to Nippon Steel’s lobbying files, some of the firms’ service areas were vaguely categorized as “Capitol investment projects,” the U.S. regulatory process regarding foreign investment in U.S. manufacturing, and how the acquisition in question would affect Japan’s bilateral relationship with the United States.
Disclosure documents show that Nippon Steel’s operatives have lobbied Congress, the White House, and various federal agencies wielding oversight over foreign transactions, such as the U.S. Treasury, State Department, and Department of Commerce, to push the proposed purchase through.
Nippon Steel noticeably ramped up lobbying spending in the second half of 2024, shelling out $1.45 million in Q3 and $1.71 million in Q4, more than double the amount the corporation collectively spent across the first two quarters. This year, according to a Washington Examiner review of quarterly activity reports, Nippon Steel has already doled out an additional $1.83 million, as the company scrambles to seal some sort of deal.
Biden was slated to swat down the deal in September, but Nippon Steel’s vice chairman physically took acquisition talks to Washington, flying in to meet with senior U.S. officials as part of an 11th-hour plea to save it, the Financial Times reported.
One week after the meeting, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews the national security risks of foreign transactions, approved Nippon Steel’s request to refile its bid to buy US Steel, delaying a regulatory decision on the acquisition agreement until after Election Day.
However, Biden blocked the deal on national security grounds before departing office, though his administration held off on enforcing an executive order that required Nippon to “permanently abandon” its US Steel bid.
Trump has said he opposes an outright buyout of US Steel and wants the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker to remain U.S.-owned.
“Buyer Beware!!!” Trump warned in a Truth Social post at the beginning of December.
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Now, Trump is saying he has brokered a restructured arrangement that purportedly sweetens the deal for the U.S. side. According to Trump, who is acting as an arbitrator amid negotiations, Nippon Steel will instead heavily invest in US Steel — injecting $14 billion over the next 14 months — as opposed to owning it.
Emerging details, or lack thereof, on the impending deal are raising questions among some skeptics over whether it would actually benefit the U.S. steel industry. US Steel has not publicly disclosed any of the deal-making details to investors. The last securities filing was submitted about three weeks ago.
Ahead of his celebratory US Steel rally in Pittsburgh this week, Trump described the deal as “a planned partnership” that will keep the U.S. industrial icon headquartered in the Steel City. US Steel issued a statement of support echoing Trump’s “partnership” phrasing.
“It will be controlled by the United States. Otherwise, I wouldn’t make the deal,” Trump stressed Sunday. “It’s an investment and it’s a partial ownership, but it will be controlled by the U.S.A.”
Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday that the agreement gives the U.S. government a so-called “golden share,” allowing federal authorities to have some say in board member appointments.
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When asked what Nippon Steel gets out of this supposed win-win situation, McCormick said it affords the Japanese giant greater opportunity to access the U.S. market.
US Steel, Nippon Steel, and the Trump White House were contacted for comment.
