Most steel in U.S. is of U.S. origin not imported, imported steel makes about about 28% of U.S. market even now while imports are way up this year. Most of imported steel is imported as finished goods. U.S imports largest amount of steel from South Korea, then Japan, Brazil, then China, with about twice as much from South Korea as China.
I’m not saying they didn’t use Chinese steel, but its unlikely as its not on the west coast, and Chinese imports have almost no price advantage over domestic steel outside of specific U.S markets as transportation is such a big part of the cost. If China’s economy wasn’t about to implode so that they pushed out steel below cost, it would cost more to import Chinese steel than use domestic steel.
I wouldn’t put it past liberals or government to do stupid things and waste money though.