Skepticism mires Trump’s Iowa steel plant project: ‘Promises are not the same as jobs’

Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics, Ravi Ruia, board member of Mesabi Metallics and director of Essar Capital, and US secretary of energy, Chris Wright, listen as Donald Trump delivers remarks at the White House on 28 September 2026. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenRewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics, Ravi Ruia, board member of Mesabi Metallics and director of Essar Capital, and US secretary of energy, Chris Wright, listen as Donald Trump delivers remarks at the White House on 28 September 2026. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesSteel industrySkepticism mires Trump’s Iowa steel plant project: ‘Promises are not the same as jobs’The project has sparked doubts over whether the plant will be built and delivered as promised, given Trump’s record

Donald Trump has long sought to portray himself as a man of steel, from the White House photoshopping Trump to look like Superman, to enacting tariffs on steel and approving the sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel with a ”golden” share given to the US government.

Most recently, the Trump administration announced plans to construct the largest steel plant in the US, a $15bn plant in Lee county, Iowa to be built by India-based Mesabi Metallics.

But the project and claims surrounding it have incited skepticism over whether the plant will be built and delivered as promised, given Trump’s record and the financial history of Mesabi Metallics’ parent company, Essar Global.

The plant had originally been scheduled to be built in Minnesota, a state that usually votes for Democrats. The shift to Iowa – where Republicans are struggling in the midterms – has also attracted attention.

Doug May, who worked for 43 years as a steelworker at a mill in Granite City, Illinois, characterized the announcement as “political pandering” given the timing and how tariffs are hurting Iowa farmers.

“He pulled the same thing in 2018, just before an election, when he announced that $10bn Foxconn project,” May said.

That project, in swing state Wisconsin, failed to produce the jobs Trump and Foxconn had promised.

May argued Trump is using the steel industry as a campaign strategy, while ignoring the work the United Steel Workers have done to push to save the steel industry, including filing over 150 trade cases over the past decades to combat unfair trade practices that harm US workers. Over 40 domestic steel producers in the US filed for bankruptcy in the late 1990s.

“We, the steel workers in Granite City, served as the best foot soldiers lobbying Congress, holding rallies and campaigns, to raise awareness to the cheating of foreign steelmakers and the need for stronger trade enforcement during that era,” added May. “Arguably, we played a very important role in saving domestic steel.”

Essar Global first proposed building a steel plant with a $1.65bn investment in the Mesabi iron range in north-east Minnesota when they purchased Minnesota Steel in 2007.

By 2016, Essar Steel Minnesota had filed for bankruptcy, following construction delays and financing issues at its Nashwauk, Minnesota project, where its iron ore mine, which is supposed to fuel the Iowa steel plant, is located.