Not only is Union Pacific Chief Executive Jim Vena a former locomotive engineer who literally built his career from the track up, he’s also a former hockey player who often boasts publicly about mixing it up along the boards in order to move the puck.
So it came as little surprise when it was revealed that UP (NYSE: UNP) was on a list of 37 donors who have contributed toward construction of President Donald Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom.
No details including the amounts of the donations were disclosed from donors that include Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft and T-Mobile. Trump has said that the project would be privately funded.
Contractors last week demolished most of the White House’s historic East Wing to clear the way for the 90,000-square foot President Donald J. Trump Ballroom.
It’s the latest move in a public campaign by Vena to win support for the historic $85 billion acquisition of eastern carrier NS (NYSE: NSC) in July. If approved, the merger would create the first U.S. transcontinental freight railroad and reshape the North American rail industry.
A Union Pacific spokesperson told FreightWaves that the company had no comment.
Some observers inside and outside railroading have all but conceded that approval is a foregone conclusion. But the merger has failed to generate sustained excitement on Wall Street, where UP’s shares are trading more than 10% lower than when the deal was first announced.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick earlier praised the plan, as did Trump during a visit by Vena to the Oval Office visit in September. Prior to that Trump fired Robert Primus, a Joe Biden appointee and former chairman of the Surface Transportation Board, which will approve or deny the merger. Primus was the only vote against the Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CPR)-Kansas City Southern merger in 2023.
Vena also won the backing of SMART-TD, UP’s largest labor union, in exchange for post-merger job guarantees. Some of the largest intermodal companies that stand to benefit the most from a single-line coast-to-coast rail route have also blessed the deal.
The Justice Department will ultimately make a recommendation on the merger to the STB; the formal application could be filed as soon a next month.
UP’s western rival, BNSF, has been vocal in its opposition to mergers in general. Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett of parent Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) has said that the company won’t bid for NS or other eastern Class I carrier CSX (NASDAQ: CSX). The latter’s then-CEO Joe Hinrichs rejected initial merger overtures from UP, which led to his being replaced by Steve Angel.
Chemical and petroleum shippers have kept up a steady drumbeat opposing the merger, saying it will result in poor service, reduce rail competition and higher freight rates.
During Trump’s first administration, at least one railroad industry trade association seeking approval of its legislative agenda booked an event at Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel, which soon became a point of entry for entities seeking to curry favor with the federal decision-making machinery.
Trump sold the hotel after he was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
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Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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