Trump cuts threaten massive steel plant in JD Vance's hometown: 'Makes no sense'
Even though one of the goals of President Donald Trump 's trade war is to revive U.S. manufacturing, his administration is slashing a key program meant to help modernize plants across the country — including in Vice President JD Vance's hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
New reporting from CNN says the Trump administration has frozen $6.3 billion in Biden-era grant programs that would have allowed large industrial companies to upgrade their equipment. In the meantime, Elon Musk's DOGE will decide what it will allocate, if anything, to companies like "steel giant" Cleveland-Cliffs.
According to CNN, the company was slated to receive a $500 million grant to upgrade its blast furnaces.
"The new furnaces — which run on climate-friendly hydrogen, natural gas and electricity instead of coal — would have extended the life of the plant and given the steel company a foot in the future," the article stated.
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In addition, the grants, "which would have created over 100 permanent jobs and 1,200 construction jobs in Middletown alone, are slated for termination under the Trump administration," according to internal documents obtained by CNN.
Middletown is the Ohio town where Vance grew up.
Climate Reporter Ella Nilsen wrote, "Experts fear the cuts could have a chilling effect on America’s manufacturing industry, especially as the global economy reels from Trump’s tariff war. Trump’s tariffs, which were meant to be a boon to manufacturing, could be painful in the short term as they roil markets, stoke recession fears and seize supply chains."
An anonymous source told CNN, "it 'makes zero sense' to cut a major federal grant to one of the largest employers in the vice president’s hometown."
The source continued, “There’s no political logic to it whatsoever. Cliffs is the major vertically integrated steel manufacturer left in this country, and they’ve been quite supportive of Trump’s tariffs. This really reads like a bunch of 24-year-olds at DOGE are working through this.”
In a statement, an Energy Department spokesperson told CNN that “no final decisions have been made” about funding cuts.