EXCLUSIVE — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tore into the CEO of Ohio-based steel company Cleveland-Cliffs for controversial comments he made about Japan, comparing the remarks to those of U.S. adversaries.
Pompeo, who is advising Japanese company Nippon Steel on its plan to acquire U.S. Steel, spoke with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden blocked the $14.9 billion deal, and now Cleveland-Cliffs is expressing interest in buying U.S. Steel.
Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves called Japan “evil” on Monday, among other incendiary remarks, which drew condemnation from Pompeo. Pompeo said that for the past several decades, Tokyo has been “amongst our greatest allies in the delivering security for the American people.”
“I think those would be comments that you would more likely hear from [Chinese President] Xi Jinping or [Russian President] Vladimir Putin than someone who understood the importance of this ally of ours here in the United States,” Pompeo said.
Goncalves first made the remarks during a press conference in Pennsylvania, where he said he had a plan to buy U.S. Steel. At one point in the conference, he began attacking Japan in harsh terms.
“Japan is evil. Japan taught China a lot of things,” Goncalves said, according to CNBC. “Japan taught China how to dump, how to have overcapacity, how to overproduce.”
Goncalves also knocked Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for expressing concerns to Biden about his blocking of the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal. He also challenged Ishiba to do the same once President-elect Donald Trump becomes president.
“Japan beware,” Goncalves said. “You don’t understand who you are. You did not learn anything since 1945. You did not learn how good we are, how gracious we are, how magnanimous we are, how forgiving we are.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Cleveland-Cliffs for comment.
Trump has, like Biden, expressed opposition to Nippon Steel acquiring U.S. Steel. Pompeo, who served as Trump’s secretary of state from 2018 to 2021 and CIA director before that, said he hopes Trump continues to evaluate the deal.
“I hope he’ll continue to absorb facts and take on board what I think is really at the guts of this, which is if the objective is to make stuff in America — which President Trump clearly is going to do, I’m confident in that — and if your objective is to make sure that American workers make that, there is no superior outcome for the people of the Mon Valley in Pennsylvania than authorizing a several-billion-dollar in that facility,” Pompeo said.
He said that the acquisition would help keep jobs at U.S. Steel and keep steel being made in the United States. He said the deal would be good for U.S. manufacturers and for the country’s defense and security.
“This is an unmitigated good outcome for America and I hope President Trump and the team around him will take a good look once they get into office and get settled a little bit and come to that same conclusion,” Pompeo added.
Separately from the Nippon Steel deal, Pompeo defended Trump’s use of tariffs and expressed optimism that trade policy under Trump 2.0 will end up being beneficial to the U.S. and help the trade balance.
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Trump campaigned on implementing 10% to 20% across-the-board tariffs and for the ability to leverage reciprocal tariffs. Trump has also threatened 25% tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico in an effort to coerce them into stopping the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the U.S.
“We’ve been treated unfairly in many of our trade arrangements,” Pompeo said. “He’s going to use whatever tools available, tariffs included, to fix that to the maximum extent possible. To get the United States on equal footing with every country, not just China, which I think he’ll focus on, but certainly countries all across the world including Canada and Mexico.”