26/06/2025
President Donald Trump now personally holds sweeping veto power over U.S. Steel’s decisions in key areas, according to an amended corporate charter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
U.S. Steel says Trump holds what the White House calls a “golden share” in the Pittsburgh-based company. The amended charter, however, does not reference future presidents. Instead, it says the veto power passes to the Treasury and Commerce Departments as representatives of the U.S. government after Trump leaves office, according to the SEC filing.
A White House official told CNBC Thursday that future presidents can either designate someone to hold the golden share, or assume direct veto power themselves, as Trump has done.
“President Trump can also designate someone else for this role but is choosing to hold it himself,” the official said.
Trump approved the controversial merger of U.S. Steel with Japan’s Nippon Steel on June 13, after the companies signed a national security agreement with the U.S. and accepted the “golden share” arrangement. Trump opposed the deal in the runup to the 2024 president election.
Trump’s direct involvement in measures to address the government’s national security concerns is unprecedented, said Stephen Heifetz, a lawyer who previously served on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the agency that reviewed the U.S.-Nippon deal.
But it is also, arguably, all for appearances sake, Heifetz said. The Treasury and Commerce Departments, which will exercise the “golden share” after Trump leaves office, are arms of the executive and work for the U.S. president, Heifetz said.
“We have a golden share, which I control, or president controls,” Trump told reporters at the White House on June 12. “Now I’m a little concerned, whoever the president might be, but that gives you total control.”
The golden share gives Trump, and later the Treasury and Commerce Departments, veto power over the following business decisions a