When Democrats oppose the policies of the Second Trump administration, they struggle to convey a clear stance on tariffs, and many are walking a political tightrope amid the rapid changes in President Trump’s trade agenda.
While most Democrats criticize Trump’s reunion as “confusing” and “reckless,” they have little consensus on accepting themselves as a policy tool.
Their department was on display on Sunday morning as Democrats were burned by talk show hosts about whether their party was taking the right approach by opposing Trump’s tariffs while accepting tariffs as a principle as a policy tool.
When pressed by NBC’s Kristen Welker, Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat of New Jersey, denounced Trump’s trade strategy, but refused to oppress whether others in his party thought he was taking the right approach by offering more nuanced criticism. Welker noted that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. maintained and expanded some of the tariffs Trump had enacted during his first term.
“I just want to convey to you for myself a complete, clear condemnation of Trump’s tariffs,” Booker said. “It’s all wrong. You need to blame.”
A small number of Democrats are even with Trump’s tariffs. Maine Representative Jared Golden, a Democrat who has consistently won re-election in the Trump District, has accepted 10% blanket tariffs on imports and has introduced bills that codified such taxes twice.
And last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer broke it from others in the party saying he understood the “motivation” behind Trump’s tariffs and agreed with him that he “needs to make more in America.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, declined to question. Instead, she said it was wrong to allow Congress to continue the “red light, green light” strategy of Trump revoking the tariffs once it has been enacted.
“Taxes can become an important tool in the toolbox when used in a targeted way. But what we have right now is confusion and corruption,” Warren said. “Now we have a job in Congress: to take this power from Donald Trump and take it.”
The leaders of the party claim that Democrats are united, but their confused opposition has angered some of the democratic bases. Democrats of the family fired after the caucus this month I posted a video to x Pennsylvania president Chris Delugio defended tariffs as part of a larger strategy to combat the “false consensus in Washington on free trade.”
“As Democrats, we must be strong at speaking out against the weaponisation of Trump’s tariffs in order to wreak havoc on the American economy,” wrote New York Democrats leader Richie Torres. According to the video. “Confused Milkethoast messaging just blows away Trump’s insanity.”
For now, House leaders seem to have settled on beating Trump’s tariff strategy while keeping the door open to use such tools in a more strategic way in the future.
When asked last week whether Democrats would abolish Trump’s tariffs completely if they control the House, minority leader New York’s leading Haquem Jeffries said his party would use “all available legislative tools” to protect American consumers and workers from “economic harm.”
“Taxes are playing a role in ensuring that, when used properly, we have a competitive environment for our workers and our businesses,” Jeffries said. “That’s not what’s happening right now. This is a reckless economic loose hammer with Donald Trump and Congress-based Republicans working on the economy and Americans are well injured.”
