One thing about writing columns on a million different topics is whatever subject you write about strikes a nerve with someone out there, usually lots of people. As such, weeks, months or even years later you get emails with updates or questions about the topic, or simply someone making a new case about something else using what you’d written before. I get emails on everything from the WNBA to Kamala Harris’s husband and masculinity to Tim Walz being “Fraudie Murphy.” Readers remember birthdays, anniversaries and seemingly every mistake you’ve ever made. In that last sense, they’re like an ex who always managed to dredge up whatever it was you’d thought you’d gotten past as a couple, only in a good way (mostly).
It is fun, and it is fodder, too. At time when everyone is writing a different version of the same column about this Cabinet nominee or that scandal, someone emails a nice reminder that there’s a whole world out there beyond what has the bobbleheads on cable TV yelling at each other.
I’ve written a lot about growing up in a UAW household in Detroit and seeing similarities between the slow destruction of the auto industry in the Motor City and the saga of US Steel and its fight to survive.
I honestly have no idea why anyone would care where the company that owns US Steel is located, as long as they are not hostile, because all that really matters is the jobs survive so the American families dependent on them can.
I’ve gotten emails on all sides of the issues – from people who agree to those who wish to tell me where I should spend eternity and what I should do to myself while there. I take them all under advisement. And sometimes I learn something
Such was the case last week with an email from a reader who sent me an article from the Financial Times on the subject. An collection of federal agencies called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius for short) is due to make a recommendation to the president on the sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel, a Japanese company, by December 23rd.
You wouldn’t think this would be controversial, as we are currently not at war with Japan and are unlikely to be anytime soon. Also, the physical steel-making factories are all in the United States and cannot be packed up and moved, meaning should some unforeseen emergency occur where Japan refuses to help fill our steel needs, the federal government could simply seize the facilities and keep production rolling. Unless those opposed believe the Americans working there would refuse to help their own country? I don’t think they’re saying that.
The FT reported, “at least three Cfius agencies — the Treasury, Pentagon and state department — had concluded that the acquisition of the iconic American steelmaker (by Nippon Steel) posed no security risks. The main opposition inside Cfius to the transaction is being led by Katherine Tai, the US trade representative.”
That last bit is what brought this to the emailer’s attention, and what caused them to send me the link to the article. Not because they have a keen interest in the happenings of the US trade representative, but because Tai seems to have a keen interest in the main competitor to Nippon Steel to buy US Steel, a company called Cleveland-Cliffs.
Cleveland-Cliffs offered to buy US Steel for $8.3 billion. That’s nothing to sniff at, unless you know Nippon has offered a little less than twice as much, $14.9 billion.
Yes, Cleveland-Cliffs is a US company, but so what? Japan is not China, they are an ally and, unlike China, a free country where the government does not control/own the companies in it.
So, why would Tai oppose it?
The second link in the email I got was to a press release from October from Cleveland-Cliffs with the headline, “Cleveland-Cliffs and United Steelworkers to Host Senior U.S. Government Officials at its Coatesville, Pennsylvania Steel Plant.” At the top of the list of “Senior U.S. Government Officials” is none other than “The Honorable Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative.”
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, right? No conflict of interest there – just the competing company and the union seeking power and influence by trying to block the sale to Nippon getting together with one of the people who has a say in the recommendation to the President on whether or not to proceed to have a “fireside chat” about stuff…
Imagine if your team was in the Super Bowl and the week of the big game you saw the coach of the other team hanging out with the crew of officials, or even just one of the referees. Might you have some concerns about the fairness of that in how it pertains to your team?
A big part of the trust related to governmental power is avoiding the appearance of a conflict of interest or impropriety – it’s what made the scandals involving President Joe Biden’s son and brother actually scandalous. While this doesn’t involve the President’s family, the concept is the same – you don’t do these things, you’re supposed to be impartial and have the nation’s best interest in mind.
I don’t know which way Tai will ultimately go, but it struck my emailer, and me, a little odd. I don’t know where Tai will end up when she leaves office next month, but if I were a betting man I’d put down a couple on bucks on her at least getting a nice paying corporate speech or two from a steel company or union.
That’s the problem with government, so few people in positions that can do good bother to make sure they don’t put themselves in a position to appear that they’re doing anything but. I don’t know which way Tai will ultimately go, I just know she looks tainted. If you’re an American steel worker whose ability to care for your family hangs in the balance, and may well be on the other side of the scale of the financial interests of one of the decision-makers, you deserve better than that.
Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.