The White House made an embarrassing error when it failed to delete the old title of an executive order when issuing a new and unrelated one, the Daily Caller reported. President Joe Biden issued the order Friday prohibiting Nippon Steel from acquiring U.S. Steel.
Biden said the sale will not go through over national security concerns. It was the same reason given in an executive order in May to Chinese Real Estate "regarding the acquisition of certain real property of Cheyenne leads by MineOne cloud computing investment I L.P.," an archived version noted.
"Oops. White House copy-and-pastes from a previous presidential order on a Chinese real estate transaction and uses it for the Nippon Steel announcement. And forgets to delete the title," Ken Moriyasu, a journalist for Nikkei Asia, captioned a screenshot of the error on X, formerly Twitter.
Oops.
White House copy-and-pastes from a previous presidential order on a Chinese real estate transaction and uses it for the Nippon Steel announcement. And forgets to delete the title. pic.twitter.com/8ibeSYujxI— Ken Moriyasu (@kenmoriyasu) January 3, 2025
Biden explained his reasoning for blocking the $15 million deal in a statement, including national security concerns. "As I have said many times, steel production—and the steelworkers who produce it—are the backbone of our nation," Biden began.
"A strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority and is critical for resilient supply chains. That is because steel powers our country: our infrastructure, our auto industry, and our defense industrial base," Biden added.
"Without domestic steel production and domestic steelworkers, our nation is less strong and less secure," the press release said. Biden blamed foreign producers for driving down the prices which leads to job loss for Americans.
Shockingly, his remedy for this sounds much like President-elect Donald Trump's plans. "I have taken decisive action to level the playing field for American steelworkers and steel producers by tripling tariffs on steel imports from China," Biden said.
Biden also cited the importance of domestic steel production "to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests," he said. "As a committee of national security and trade experts across the executive branch determined, this acquisition would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains."
These concerns echo those from the original order from which the language relic came, though the two are unrelated. In May, Biden blocked a Chinese company from purchasing land near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, the Associated Press reported.
The Wyoming facility is a nuclear base, and Biden called the potential sale to Chinese-backed MineOne Partners Ltd. a "national security risk." The company, a crypto mining firm, had purchased the land in 2022 but went under the radar until a public tip came into the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
The agency is supposed to review and approve land purchases near "sensitive" U.S. sites but was not informed of the purchase until recently. Biden's order didn't specify objections but noted "specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities" there "presented a significant national security risk."
This is a reasonable concern that will likely be taken even more seriously in the next administration. Still, it's not without consequences as the prohibition against the U.S. Steel sale could mean facility closures for the company.
Biden is right to put national security issues first regarding these matters. However, it seems his staffers may just be phoning it in at this point, considering the sloppiness of the documentation.
