President Donald Trump announced Monday that Mesabi Metallics will build what he described as the largest steel plant in American history, a facility in Iowa that would produce 10 million tons of steel annually and draw its iron ore from a Minnesota mine.
Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office alongside leadership from the India-based Essar Group, which owns Mesabi Metallics, as well as a group of Iowa officials, according to Breitbart News.
“Today we’re thrilled to announce that Mesabi Metallics will be building the largest steel plant in American history in the great state of Iowa,” Trump said. “It’s the largest plant — one of the largest plants in the world — but it’s the largest plant in America by far.”
A mine and a mill, tied together
According to the president, the project is anchored by a Minnesota iron ore mine that he said is the first new such mine in the United States in more than half a century. That ore would feed the Iowa plant, keeping the raw material and the finished steel inside the country.
“But it’s the first new iron ore mine in the United States in more than 50 years with the highest quality ore,” Trump said. “In other words, this steel will be mined, melted, and made right here in the USA, which is something very unusual.”
The scale Trump outlined is significant for the domestic industry: 10 million tons of annual steel production would make the Iowa facility one of the largest single steelmaking sites in the country. The president also put numbers on the expected economic ripple effects, saying the project would generate up to 6,000 construction jobs, close to 2,000 manufacturing and mining jobs, and add $95 billion to the U.S. economy.
Those figures came directly from the president’s remarks and have not been independently verified. It is also not yet clear what timeline the company has in mind for construction or when the plant would begin production. Essar Group has previously been involved in Minnesota mining ventures through Mesabi Metallics, a project that has gone through a long and complicated development history, though Monday’s announcement focused on the Iowa plant and its economic promises.
Tariffs front and center
Trump used the announcement to promote his steel tariff policy, arguing that the levies are the reason companies like Essar are choosing to build in the United States rather than abroad. He noted that he initially imposed a 25 percent Section 232 tariff on steel and raised it to 50 percent in June 2025.
The president said the tariffs have helped revive domestic steelmaking, which he described as “roaring back to life.”
“Everyone’s building their plant here because they don’t want to pay tariffs. It’s really not that complicated,” Trump said. “A lot of people say they don’t understand it, but they do. They just don’t like to give us credit.”
He also tied the tariff revenue to a broader spending proposal, saying the money coming in from the levies could fund direct payments if his party holds Congress.
“Because of tariffs, we are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars of profits,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons I can offer, if Republicans win the House and the Senate, $5,000 to every adult, and we can do it.”
The president did not provide details on how such a payment program would be structured or paid for, and the claim about tariff revenue has been a recurring theme in his public remarks without a full accounting attached.
During the event, Trump also criticized former President Joe Biden’s economic record, saying steel production had fallen and that nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in the year before Trump took office. Those figures were part of the president’s political argument for his tariff approach rather than an independent assessment of the Biden years.
Lutnick: ‘Without those tariffs, this doesn’t get built’
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has been one of the administration’s most vocal defenders of the steel tariffs, backed up the president’s framing. He argued that the Iowa project would not exist without the Section 232 duties.
“These are your 232 tariffs — the steel tariffs — at work,” Lutnick said. “Without those tariffs, this mine doesn’t get built, and this steel plant does not get built.”
The appearance of Essar Group leadership in the Oval Office underscored how the administration is presenting the deal: as a concrete example of tariff policy translating into domestic investment. Whether the plant moves forward on the schedule and at the scale described will depend on a range of factors outside the announcement itself, including permitting, financing, construction costs and steel market conditions.
For Iowa, the announcement holds the prospect of a sizable industrial employer in a state where manufacturing has long been a pillar of the economy. For the administration, it serves as a case study it can point to as it makes the broader argument that tariffs are reshaping where American industry builds.
The White House did not release a specific construction start date or a projected completion timeline as part of Monday’s event. More details on the project’s financing and regulatory approvals are expected to emerge as the company moves forward.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/28/trump-announces-plans-to-build-americas-largest-ever-steel-plant-in-iowa/