Democrats are sharply divided over trade. But Donald Trump is helping them paper over those rifts.
The steep, sweeping tariffs the president unveiled in recent days have largely united a party that has for years undergone bruising internal battles over trade. From populists in the Rust Belt to free-trade champions in blue states, Democrats are lining up against the levies.
In interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers, congressional aides and strategists on the left, Democrats on Capitol Hill almost universally denounced them, even as many stressed they didn’t categorically oppose tariffs as part of policymaking.
“The problem is not tariffs, generally. It’s the way that Trump is doing them,” said Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), from a swing state that relies heavily on car manufacturing. “Trump tariffs are bad, and the American people are suffering. It’s a pretty easy message.”
Even Democrats who had previously made public breaks with the party on trade got on the same page this week.
“Democrats are pretty uniform, if not entirely uniform, in making the case that what’s happening right now is really dangerous,” said Rep. Chris Deluzio, a western Pennsylvania Democrat who last month penned an op-ed urging his party to “break free from the wrong-for-decades zombie horde of neoliberal economists” who argue that all tariffs are bad.
On the other end of the party, Rahm Emanuel, the former Barack Obama chief-of-staff who recently rejoined the investment bank Centerview Partners, voiced a similar message. He called Trump’s blanket tariffs the “largest tax increase.” At the same time, he said, “raise them aggressively on China” and “go back to making China the bad international actor that decimates others’ industrial base.”
If there is any major disagreement in the party, it isn’t about opposition to Trump’s latest front in the trade war, but only how best to craft a message against his recent tariffs.
“Trying to offer nuance on Trump’s disastrous tariffs policy in this moment is like telling someone with alcohol poisoning: you know, red wine in moderation is actually good for heart health. It’s missing the point. It’s bad messaging,” said Charlotte Clymer, a Democratic operative. “For the love of God, just keep it simple and focus on Trump’s economic extremism.”
A coming test of party unity on the issue will be a vote being forced by Rep. Greg Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, to fully terminate the authority used by Trump for the “Liberation Day” tariffs. Party leaders expect nearly unanimous support for it.
There’s one exception: Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), a red-district Democrat who often takes iconoclastic stances in the party, has said he supports some of Trump’s trade moves and had himself proposed a 10 percent tariff on all imports. Golden, asked about the coming trade vote, pointed to his previous statements and indicated he’d oppose it.
The extensive nature of Trump’s latest tariffs — as well as the haphazard way they were rolled out — helps explain why Democrats have been able to rally around opposing the levies. Dozens of nations were targeted by Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, and a formula his team used has been widely criticized.
It’s also the latest example of Trump taking an action and resolving the Democratic Party’s conflicts in the process. During his first term, Democrats on Capitol Hill largely joined together in disapproval of Trump’s immigration and tax policies, even as internal disagreements over those issues lurked underneath.
On tariffs, the leader of a powerful labor union headquartered in a key swing state who has backed some of Trump’s tariffs — putting Democrats in a difficult position — has signaled more leeway on his more recent levies. Shawn Fain, president of the Detroit-based United Auto Workers, said the global tariffs announced last week were “reckless.”
Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.), who’s flirted with a Senate bid, said, “There are all kinds of purposes and strategic purposes and ways to use tariffs. That’s not what this is.”
Other ambitious Democrats took similar positions.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), never one to shy away from conflicts with his party, criticized Trump’s tariffs on nations close to the U.S.: “I’ll never understand or support the constant punching our allies in the mouth. If we force them to find a way forward without us, they will.” At the same time, he said China “absolutely” should have “been put on notice.”
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), who recently announced he is running for the Senate in one of the most competitive seats this cycle, called the tariffs a “foolish” and “incredibly destructive” even as he noted “there is a place for targeted tariffs for our national security interest to protect domestic industries.”
And Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), a passionate free-trade advocate, said, “America is better off when we are a positive force for expanding rules-based trade opportunities across the world.”A spokesperson for Polis added that Democrats are “united” against Trump’s newest tariffs.
But even if Democrats on Capitol Hill aren’t openly warring over Trump’s latest trade policy, there has been some disagreement in the party over its messaging. When the House Democrats last week posted a video on X of Deluzio calling tariffs “a powerful tool” but arguing that Trump’s use of them has been “chaotic,” he came under fire from some party activists and strategists online as equivocating.
“Now is the time to meet the moment, yet too many Democrats have gone mealy-mouthed. They’re giving the public a dissertation on targeted tariffs versus blanket tariffs when all they should be saying is one thing over and over again: Donald Trump’s tariffs are a new tax and they are bad,” said Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action. “This isn’t time for individual debates, it’s time to form a united front and fight.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted about an hour after the Deluzio video with a warning: “We as Democrats must speak out forcefully against Trump’s weaponization of tariffs to wreak havoc on the American economy. Muddled milquetoast messaging only emboldens Trump’s madness.”
But Torres was eager this week to downplay any party splits. Asked if he was referring to Deluzio, he said in a text, “I was speaking generally — not referring to anything in particular.”
And, he said, “I fully support repealing Trump’s universal tariffs.”
As Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) put it, Democrats would come together through “this crazy thing called legislating, where you actually bring people together of diverse views, and you see what people can agree on.”
