The Trump administration reportedly stepped in to prevent U.S. Steel from shutting down operations at a plant in Granite City, Illinois, with the White House using new control of the company it gained as part of an agreement that allowed a merger with Japan's Nippon Steel. U.S. Steel had told nearly 800 workers at the plant in early September that it planned to stop processing steel slabs at the facility by November. U.S. Steel then announced on September 19 that the plant would continue to supply raw steel slabs "indefinitely," but did not acknowledge whether the reversal was due to pressure from the Trump administration. The Granite City plant has been gradually scaling down its operations for years, and had idled its last operating blast furnace in 2023. President Donald Trump agreed to allow a $14 billion merger between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel to go through in June, provided that the companies give the U.S. government a so-called "golden share" in U.S. Steel's operations moving forward.