President Donald Trump would have unique influence over the operations of U.S. Steel under the terms of what the White House calls an “investment” being made by Japan-based Nippon Steel in the iconic American steelmaker.

Administration officials over the past few days provided additional insight into the “golden share” arrangement that the federal government made as a condition for supporting the deal.

The Pittsburgh-based steel maker and Nippon Steel plan $11 billion in new investments by 2028 after indicating that they plan to move forward with the deal under the terms of a national security agreement that has the White House’s approval.

The White House has described the deal as a “partnership” and an “investment” by Nippon Steel in U.S. Steel, although Nippon Steel has never backed off its stated intention of buying and controlling U.S. Steel as a wholly owned subsidiary in a nearly $15 billion offer it originally made in late 2023.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted on social media on Saturday how the “golden share” to be held by the president would operate, revealing that the White House is willing to insert itself aggressively into a private company’s affairs even as it has simultaneously pledged to strip away government regulations so businesses can expand.

Under the government’s terms, it would be impossible without Trump’s consent to relocate U.S. Steel’s headquarters from Pittsburgh, change the name of the company, “transfer production or jobs outside the United States,” shutter factories, or reincorporate the business overseas, among other powers held by the president.

Lutnick also said it would require presidential approval to reduce or delay $14 billion in planned investments.

“The Golden Share held by the United States in U.S. Steel has powerful terms that directly benefit and protect America, Pennsylvania, the great steelworkers of U.S. Steel, and U.S. manufacturers that will have massively expanded access to domestically produced steel,” Lutnick posted on X.

That $14 billion figure is higher than what the companies disclosed on Friday when Trump created a pathway for the investment with an executive order based on the terms of the national security agreement being accepted.

Lawmakers from Pennsylvania say the higher figure includes the cost of an electric arc furnace — a more modern steel mill that melts down scrap — that Nippon Steel wants to build in the U.S., bringing the value of the deal to at least $28 billion.

The president has the authority to name one of the corporate board’s independent three directors and veto power over the other two choices, according to a person familiar with the terms of the agreement who insisted on anonymity to discuss them. The details of the board structure were first reported by The New York Times.

Details of the agreement emerged as Trump was traveling to Alberta in Canada for the Group of Seven summit.

Still, the full terms remain somewhat unclear. The companies have not made public the full terms of Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel or the national security agreement with the federal government.

On Sunday, the United Steelworkers, the labor union representing U.S. Steel employees, posted a letter raising questions about the deal forged by Trump, who during his run for the presidency had pledged to block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel.

The union said it was “disappointed” that Trump “has reversed course” and raised basic questions about the ownership structure of U.S. Steel.

“Neither the government nor the companies have publicly identified what all the terms of the proposed transaction are,” the letter said. “Our labor agreement expires next year, on September 1, 2026, and the USW and its members are prepared to engage the new owners” of U.S. Steel “to obtain a fair contract.”

If Trump has as much control of U.S. Steel as he has claimed, that could put him in the delicate position of negotiating the salary and benefits of unionized steelworkers going into midterm elections.

As president, Joe Biden used his authority to block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel on his way out of the White House after a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

After he was elected, Trump expressed openness to working out an arrangement and ordered another review by the committee. That’s when the idea of the “golden share” emerged as a way to resolve national security concerns and protect American interests in domestic steel production.

As it sought to win over American officials, Nippon Steel made a series of commitments.

It gradually increased the amount of money it was pledging to invest in U.S. Steel, promised to maintain U.S. Steel’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, put U.S. Steel under a board with a majority of American citizens and keep plants operating.

It also said it would protect the interests of U.S. Steel in trade matters and it wouldn’t import steel slabs that would compete with U.S. Steel’s blast furnaces in Pennsylvania and Indiana.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Julia Demaree Nikhinson—AP

Demonstrators crowded into streets, parks and plazas across the U.S. on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump, mixing anti-authoritarian messages with support for immigrants and calls to protect democracy.

Governors across the U.S. urged calm and vowed no tolerance for violence, while some mobilized the National Guard ahead of marchers gathering in major downtowns and small towns. Through midday, confrontations were isolated.

Atlanta’s 5,000-capacity “No Kings” rally quickly reached its limit, with thousands more demonstrators gathered outside barriers to hear speakers in front of the state Capitol. Huge crowds marched in New York, Denver, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, some behind “no kings” banners.

In Minnesota, organizers canceled demonstrations as police worked to track down a suspect in the shootings of two Democratic legislators and their spouses.

Intermittent light rain fell as marchers gathered for the flagship rally in Philadelphia’s Love Park. They shouted “Whose streets? Our streets!” as they marched to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where they listened to speakers on the steps made famous in the movie “Rocky.”

“So what do you say, Philly?” Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland shouted to the crowd. “Are you ready to fight back? Do you want a gangster state or do you want free speech in America?”

Trump was in Washington for a military parade marking the Army’s 250th anniversary that coincides with the president’s birthday. There, a massive demonstration toured the city’s streets, led by a banner reading, “Trump must go now.”

In Charlotte, demonstrators trying to march through downtown briefly faced off with police forming a barricade with their bicycles, chanting “let us walk,” while law enforcement in northern Atlanta deployed tear gas to divert several hundred protesters heading toward Interstate 285. A journalist was seen being detained by officers and police helicopters flew above the crowd.

In some places, organizers handed out little American flags while others flew their flags upside down. Mexican flags made an appearance in some demonstrations.

Protests were planned in nearly 2,000 locations across the country, from city blocks and small towns to courthouse steps and community parks, organizers said. The 50501 Movement orchestrating the protests says it picked the “No Kings” name to support democracy and speak out against what they call the authoritarian actions of the Trump administration. The name 50501 stands for 50 states, 50 protests, one movement.

The demonstrations come on the heels of protests that flared up across the country over federal immigration enforcement raids that began last week and Trump ordering the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, where protesters blocked a freeway and set cars on fire.

Philadelphia

Thousands gathered in downtown Love Park, with organizers handing out small American flags and people carried protest signs saying things like “fight oligarchy” and “deport the mini-Mussolinis.”

Karen Van Trieste, a 61-year-old nurse who drove up from Maryland, said she grew up in Philadelphia and wanted to be with a large group of people showing her support.

“I just feel like we need to defend our democracy,” she said. She is concerned about the Trump administration’s layoffs of staff at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fate of immigrant communities and the Trump administration trying to rule by executive order, she said.

A woman wearing a foam Statue of Liberty crown brought a speaker system and led an anti-Trump sing-along, changing the words “young man” in the song “Y.M.C.A.” to “con man.”

One man in Revolutionary War era garb and a tricorn hat held a sign with a quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

Los Angeles

Thousands gathered in front of City Hall in a boisterous crowd, waving signs and listening to a Native American drum circle and dance performances, before marching through the streets.

Signs included “They fear us, don’t back down California,” “Protesting is not a crime,” “We carry dreams not danger” and “ICE out of LA.” One demonstrator carried a 2-foot-tall (60-centimeter) Trump pinata on a stick, with a crown on his head and sombrero hanging off his back while another hoisted a huge helium-filled orange baby balloon with blond hair styled like Trump’s.

North Carolina

Crowds cheered anti-Trump speakers in Charlotte’s First Ward Park and chanted “we have no kings” before marching behind a “No Kings” banner through the city, chanting “No kings, no crowns, we will not bow down” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”

Marchers stretched for blocks, led by a group of people holding a giant Mexican flag and bystanders cheering and clapping for protesters along the way.

Jocelyn Abarca, a 21-year-old college student, said the protest was a chance to “speak for what’s right” after mass deportations and the deployment of the National Guard to deal with protesters in Los Angeles last week.

“If we don’t stop it now, it’s just going to keep getting worse,” she said of the Trump administration’s actions.

Minnesota

Before organizers canceled demonstrations in the state, Gov. Tim Walz took to social media to issue a warning after the shootings.

“Out of an abundance of caution my Department of Public Safety is recommending that people do not attend any political rallies today in Minnesota until the suspect is apprehended,” he wrote.

Florida

About a thousand people gathered on the grounds of Florida’s old Capitol in Tallahassee, where protesters chanted, “This is what community looks like,” and carried signs with messages like “one nation under distress” and “dissent is patriotic.”

Organizers of the rally explicitly told the crowd to avoid any conflicts with counterprotesters and to take care not to jaywalk or disrupt traffic.

One march approached the gates of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where sheriff’s deputies turned them back.

Urging calm and calling out the National Guard

Governors and city officials vowed to protect the right to protest and to show no tolerance for violence. Some urged calm, while Republican governors in Virginia, Texas, Nebraska and Missouri were mobilizing National Guard troopsto help law enforcement manage demonstrations.

Some governors urged calm and put state police on standby for the weekend.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Mike Stewart—AP Photo

Amazon said Monday that it will spend $20 billion on two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, including one it is building alongside a nuclear power plant that has drawn federal scrutiny over an arrangement to essentially plug right into the power plant.

Kevin Miller, vice president of global data centers at Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, Amazon Web Services, told The Associated Press that the company will build another data center complex just north of Philadelphia.

One data center is being built next to northeastern Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant. The other will be in Fairless Hills at a logistics campus, the Keystone Trade Center, on what was once a U.S. Steel mill.

At a news conference in Berwick in the shadow of the power plant, Gov. Josh Shapiro called it the largest private sector investment in Pennsylvania’s history. He said Monday’s announcement is “just the beginning” because his administration is working with Amazon on additional data center projects in the state.

While critics say data centers employ relatively few people and pack little long-term job-creation punch, their advocates say they require a huge number of construction jobs to build, spend enormous sums at area vendors and generate strong tax revenues for local governments.

Shapiro touted the work that will keep construction trades members busy building Amazon’s data centers, the tech jobs that will be waiting for graduates of area colleges and the millions of dollars in property taxes that will flow to schools and local governments.

“For too long, we’ve watched as talents across Pennsylvania got hollowed out and left behind,” Shapiro said at the news conference. “No more. Now is our time to rebuild those communities and invest in them. This investment in Pennsylvania starts reversing that trend.”

Neither Shapiro’s administration nor Amazon provided details about the taxpayer-paid financial incentives that Amazon is getting to build in Pennsylvania, typically a key element of data center deals as states compete for large installations they hope will be an economic bonanza.

Amazon, however, will likely qualify for Pennsylvania’s existing sales tax exemption on purchases of data center equipment, such as servers and routers, an exemption that most states offer and that is viewed as a must-have for a state to compete.

The announcements add to the billions of dollars in Big Tech’s data center cash already flowing into the state.

Since 2024 started, Amazon has committed to about $10 billion apiece to data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina as it ramps up its investment in infrastructure to compete with other tech giants to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence products.

The rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence has fueled demand for data centers that need power to run servers, storage systems, networking equipment and cooling systems.

The majority owner of the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, Talen Energy, announced last year that it had sold its data center to Amazon for $650 million in a deal to eventually provide 960 megawatts. That’s 40% of the output of one of the nation’s largest nuclear power plants, or enough to power more than a half-million homes.

However, the arrangement between Talen and Amazon — called a “behind the meter” connection — has been held up by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the first such case to come before the agency.

It has raised questions over whether diverting power to higher-paying customers will leave enough for others and whether it’s fair to excuse big power users from paying for the grid.

For Big Tech, plugging energy-hungry data centers directly into a power plant can take years off their development timelines and is a much faster route to procuring power than having to connect to the congested electricity grid.

It’s not clear when FERC, which blocked the deal on a procedural grounds, will decide the matter, leaving in limbo regulatory treatment of the deal and others that likely would follow.

Already in Pennsylvania, Microsoft announced a deal with the owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement to supply its data centers in four states with energy.

Meanwhile, the owners of what was once Pennsylvania’s biggest coal-fired power plant say they will turn it into a $10 billion natural gas-powered data center campus.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey