When the history of the failed Joe Biden presidency is written, we will be able to look at one single incident, right here at the end, to see the problem that the Democrat could never overcome. Voters showed Joe the door not because he was too old (Donald Trump is only four years younger) but because his ideas were too old.
The incident that sums up Biden’s problems is the proposed purchase of U.S. Steel by Japanese steel maker Nippon Steel for $15 billion. Shareholders for both companies want the deal, and workers for both companies want it, too. But Biden blocked it in early January. He was willing to endanger American jobs and America’s relationship with Japan, a key ally.
The reason is that Joe has always considered himself “the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.” But he never really understood that the way to help union workers is to create more jobs, not to try to close off competition to supposedly “protect” existing American jobs.
In the final weeks of his presidency, Old Joe was still working from the same playbook he had always followed, even though it had always, ultimately, failed. Biden couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that ownership doesn’t much matter; employment does.
“It is important that we maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers,” Biden said. “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.” But workers don’t care who signs the checks as long as they clear and keep coming.
This is where incoming President Donald Trump has an advantage. He is famous for making deals. And while he has said he opposes the Nippon purchase, that may be just a way for him to seek leverage with the Japanese. Nippon has been willing to make several concessions since Trump first weighed in.
To sweeten the deal for workers, Nippon recently promised to retain all U.S. Steel workers and give them a $5,000 bonus. Even better: Nippon said it would pour money into plants, helping them make better steel right here in the U.S. More jobs seemed to be in the offing. With one or two more concessions, Trump might be willing to reverse Joe’s short-sighted opposition to the deal. Joe, meanwhile, couldn’t say “yes” to a great deal.
Biden’s vision of the future involves fantasies about solar power (he was the Obama administration official who went ga-ga over the Solyndra plant) and about electric vehicles. “Imagine with me, imagine the day when 2,000 workers are once again passing through those gates,” Biden said while he was vice president, when it looked as if an electric automaker might reopen a shuttered car plant in his native Delaware.
But even if the plant had reopened, making EVs, it would have provided far fewer jobs than the original plant did. Electric car plants don’t require nearly as many workers as gas-powered car plants do. That’s one reason why Biden himself imposed import bans on Chinese electric cars: so they wouldn’t put the big American auto plants out of business.
The future of the U.S. requires more jobs, but they won’t be 1970s-style union jobs making things in massive factories. Only one in ten Americans is in a union, but the unemployment rate is less than 4.5%.
Trump has vowed to increase employment even more, as he did in his first term. He has also vowed to reduce federal meddling in the economy, as he did in his first term. Finally, he has vowed to improve relationships with important American allies, and Japan is certainly one, economically and militarily.
Donald Trump can accomplish all those goals in one action: reversing Joe Biden’s silly attempt to block Nippon’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. A deal that escaped Joe Biden is still within reach. It is not too late -- it is never too late -- for Donald Trump to make a great deal that helps hard-working Americans.
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