NY Times: ArcelorMittal donated European steel for Trump’s ballroom
The steel giant ArcelorMittal, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg and a large factory in Ghent, is reported to have donated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of European steel for the construction of a new ballroom at the White House. That is what the American newspaper The New York Times writes, citing two anonymous sources within the White House.
The new ballroom at the White House, US president Donald Trump’s controversial prestige project, carries a price tag of 400 million dollars, a large portion of which is being funded by donors. In October last year, Trump stated that he had been offered a donation worth 37 million dollars in steel for the construction.
According to The New York Times’ sources, that donation comes from ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steel producer. The steel company is owned by the Indian entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal, but is based in Luxembourg and listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange. The group, with dozens of branches worldwide, includes a large steelworks in Ghent. The Belgian former politician Karel De Gucht is a director there.
European steel producers and users were keen to keep Trump’s import tariffs on imported steel as low as possible. A major election pledge of the president was the reindustrialisation of the US, amongst others by reviving the country’s own steel industry.
To keep foreign steel and aluminium out of the US market, Trump introduced a 50 per cent import tariff. The fact that the US Supreme Court rejected the legal basis for the reciprocal trade tariffs in April this year did not change this. The Trump administration dug out another law to retain the tariffs.
However, the US government did provide for several exceptions to that general tariff for products containing steel. For instance, a regulation was introduced in October 2025 providing for the possibility of tariff reductions for heavy vehicles, parts and buses.
ArcelorMittal produces sheet steel in Canada that is used for such vehicles. The presidential proclamation came a few days after Trump had said that “a great steel company” had approached him with a proposal for a donation. According to Trump, it concerned “great steel as opposed to garbage steel, because they dump a lot of garbage around”.
Accepting this donation of foreign steel runs counter to Trump’s promise to favour the US steel industry.
De Standaard contacted ArcelorMittal for a reaction, but the company neither confirmed nor denied the report. “Not something we are commenting on, I’m afraid,” was the response. Director Karel De Gucht told the newspaper that such matters do not come before the board of directors.
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