To the extent that Donald Trump’s social media platform reflects the president’s priorities, it’s tempting to think he cares a great deal about the domestic steel industry. In fact, just a month into his second term, he published an item complaining about the U.S. steel industry having been “decimated by global actors.”

Months later, the Republican argued that “America’s future” should be built by U.S.-made steel, and in August, Trump followed up with an item that showed him alongside a group of steel workers, standing in front of a White House sign that said, “American Jobs, American Steel.”

As is often the case, however, there seems to be a gap between the president’s public posturing and his private decisions. The New York Times reported:

President Trump has championed the U.S. steel industry, promising to strengthen it and to impose stiff tariffs on foreign metals to shield manufacturers from overseas competitors.

Yet the White House has secured tens of millions of dollars worth of donated foreign steel for Mr. Trump’s $400 million ballroom project, according to two people familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and private conversations.

Though MS NOW hasn’t independently confirmed the reporting, the White House made no effort to deny the accuracy of the Times’ account. On the contrary, a spokesperson responded to a request for comment by emphasizing the apparent fact that the vanity project will be built “at no cost to the taxpayer” — which might be true, albeit not altogether relevant to the underlying question.

At first blush, this might appear to be a simple story about hypocrisy: Trump claims to champion U.S. steel, but given a chance to use it for his beloved ballroom, the Republican turned to the same foreign product he’s previously denounced.

But look closer at the story and a more controversial angle emerges.

Last fall at an event for ballroom donors, the president boasted that a “great steel company” had reached out to him about making a generous gift.

“He said, ‘Sir, I’d like to donate the steel for your ballroom,’” Trump told his audience, without identifying the person he allegedly spoke to. “I said, ‘Whoa, that’s nice.’ And I found out — ‘How much is the steel?’ I called the contractor. ‘Sir, it’s down for $37 million.’ I said, ‘This is a nice donation, right?’”

The president went on to assure his event’s attendees that this would be “great steel as opposed to garbage steel, because they dump a lot of garbage around. You know, steel is like everything else, including human beings. Steel could be high quality, and it can be low quality. He wants to make sure it’s high quality.”

What Trump neglected to mention was he was apparently referring to ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based firm, which is donating steel produced in Europe for the structure of the ballroom project, according to the Times.

He also neglected to mention that (again, according to the Times) right around the time ArcelorMittal said it would donate steel for the ballroom, the White House agreed to make adjustments to its tariffs “that could benefit ArcelorMittal, by cutting in half the tariffs applied to exports of automotive steel from its Canadian plant.”

A White House official suggested it was a coincidence that the donation and the tariff exemption happened within a few days of each other. Of course, if Team Trump, which has long struggled with allegations of systemic corruption, believes it’s earned the benefit of the doubt, it’s mistaken.

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