MIDDLETOWN, OH ‒ Vice President JD Vance will address his Ohio hometown on Friday, after federal and other officials announced that a $500 million federal grant will go toward the steel plant where Vance's grandfather once worked.
The grant, first offered to Cleveland-Cliffs in Middletown, Ohio, during the Biden administration, was supposed to be used to make the steel plant more environmentally friendly. Under President Donald Trump, the Cleveland-based company will use the federal dollars for traditional steelmaking methods that use coal and other upgrades, including ones that incorporate artificial intelligence.
CEO Lourenco Goncalves said Cleveland-Cliffs will also invest $500 million into the Middletown Works steel plant for a total $1 billion
investment. Goncalves thanked the Trump administration and said that with the grant and Trump's tariffs: "There's no end in sight here at Middletown Works. We are here to stay."
The steel plant is the "American dream," Goncalves said, noting it's where Vance's grandfather worked.
Federal officials, local politicians and Cleveland-Cliffs employees met Vance as he visited his hometown to make remarks on Friday. Gov. Mike DeWine thanked Trump and said "we are very proud" of Vance.
"This truly is a great day for the state of Ohio," he said.
Other attendees included Ohio Sens. John Husted and Bernie Moreno, Vance's half-brother and former Cincinnati mayoral candidate Cory Bowman, Ohio 1st District congressional candidate Eric Conroy, Ohio Reps. Thomas Hall and Adam Mathews, and Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue.
Local officials like Mayor Elizabeth Slamka and Middletown residents also made up the crowd.
Cleveland-Cliffs grant was first awarded under Biden for clean energy
Cleveland-Cliffs was selected to receive a $500 million federal grant for clean energy projects from the Biden administration in 2024 to replace its Middletown furnace with one that's powered by hydrogen.
At the time, the Cleveland-based company committed to spending $1.3 billion of its own money on the update, which would have created almost 200 permanent jobs, reduced production costs and lowered carbon emissions, according to the company.
But Cliffs abandoned those plans last year. Goncalves said during a July 2025 earnings call the company wouldn't be pursuing the project because of a lack of available hydrogen. In August 2025, Pat Persico, a Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson, told The Enquirer that announcements of hydrogen hubs made during the Biden administration had "not materialized" as expected.
What is Cleveland-Cliffs?
Cleveland-Cliffs, with its Middletown steel plant and West Chester office, is still a major employer in Butler County. At its peak, Armco, which owned the steel plant for almost 90 yeas, was Middletown's biggest employer. Middletown Works, the Middletown steel plant, now employs almost 2,000 hourly union-represented workers.
Armco entered a limited partnership with Kawasaki Steel Corp. in 1989, becoming A.K. Steel. Cleveland-Cliffs, based in Cleveland, bought A.K. Steel in 2020 for $1.1 billion.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Steel plant where JD Vance's grandfather worked gets $500M grant, but with a twist
