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President Donald Trump made his latest sudden move on Wednesday to put a 90-day pause on surge tariffs on many countries in favor of 10 percent ones that mostly go across the board.
This hews to a policy proposed twice since September by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District. The Democrat has emerged as one of the state’s top defenders of Trump’s trade policies, though the congressman is getting little credit from Republicans who are perpetually trying to knock him out of one of the most competitive seats in the country.
The herky-jerky maneuvers roiled the financial markets over the past week amid projections of large cost increases on Americans. Trump’s reprieve for most countries led the stock market into a historic rebound on Wednesday, when he also raised tariffs on China to a whopping 125 percent in an escalating trade war with the fellow global power.
Golden has not been worried about this. In a Wednesday interview, he said the markets should not have churned so much as Trump executes a strategy that he has long previewed, adding that the pause will give time for many countries to negotiate bilateral deals with the president.
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“To me, the 90-day pause creates space for those talks to continue now, and I don’t expect to see finalized deals in every instance in 90 days either, right?” he said. “So I don’t think that this is done.”
Trump is pursuing tariffs far more aggressively than he did in his first term. Golden won his seat in 2018, saying early in his campaign that he opposed tariffs. But he has vocally backed them since then, setting up last year’s race with Republican Austin Theriault in which the two candidates often agreed on the issue.
His views are shaped in part by conservative economist Oren Cass, who has been a top Trump explainer in recent weeks. Golden has used interviews to urge reporters to focus more on the long-term benefit of bringing manufacturing production back to America, a goal that many Mainers share but economists have questioned.
Golden differs with Trump to a degree on China, saying Wednesday that a phased approach to the massive tariffs would be easier for American companies to navigate. He noted that his bill would make Congress codify tariffs that the president can now impose at will and ratchets down tariffs if the U.S. gets trade surpluses with other countries.
It’s hard to know what’s next. The New York Times has a behind-the-scenes look at Trump’s reversal, which looks to have been prompted by bad signs in the bond markets. But the administration framed it as part of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” plan to reshape the global order, and Golden sees a general consistency in his plans.
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“So far, he has stuck to it, and clearly, I believe that he should,” he said.
Golden has been considering a run for governor, but he also could stick around for a 2026 run for a fifth term. Former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, is kicking the tires on a run that would be fascinating on this issue because LePage opposed many of Trump’s trade policies when he was in office. The party is gearing up for that fight.
“Tomorrow let’s talk about how he’s failed to bring a single bill to become law since going to the swamp,” the Maine Republican Party tweeted at me today.
