Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden of Maine’s 2nd District broke with other major political figures here to applaud President Donald Trump’s Saturday move to impose steep tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
The praise from Golden, a fourth-term Democrat representing a district won three times by the Republican president, is no surprise. The congressman has echoed Trump’s trade policies, recently submitting a bill to enshrine tariffs on all imports and conceding since his 2024 campaign that Americans need to bear higher prices to boost domestic manufacturing.
Yet it comes at a highly sensitive time. He is alone among major political figures here in embracing the tariffs. Canada is responsible for 70 percent of Maine’s imports and 95 percent of heating oil, raising fears of major cost increases here. Legacy industries from lobstermen to potato farmers and the forest products sector are bracing for ill effects.
Golden issued a statement saying Trump’s move pushes back on “decades of free trade and globalization that prioritized low prices above all else.” He then focused on the potential long-term benefits of tariffs and repeated the president’s insistence that the three countries will come to the negotiating table to address illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
“We can incentivize job creation and manufacturing while leveling the playing field and rebalancing our trade,” Golden said. “These tariffs are also a leveraging tool to help crack down on the deadly flow of fentanyl into our country.”
What Donald Trump’s new tariffs will mean for Maine
If the tariffs are implemented broadly, the Tax Foundation has said it would cost U.S. households $830 this year.
Costs were a major issue during Trump’s 2024 campaign against former President Joe Biden. It was also a refrain in Golden’s race against former state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, who broke with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the state’s leading Republican, to support tariffs.
They are both examples of a long Maine political tradition of opposition to free trade agreements, particularly in rural areas that have steadily moved toward Trump and Republicans in the past decade. In 2016, the Legislature took a symbolic vote against a pact with Pacific countries then-President Barack Obama led and Trump withdrew from in his first term.
The economic consensus around Trump’s plans is clear. The conservative Tax Foundation expects this round of tariffs to cost U.S. households an average of $830 this year, assuming that the other countries retaliate in kind. They have not yet announced their plans to do so.
When Trump kicked off a trade war with China in 2018, the Maine lobster and wild blueberry industries were caught up in it. The situation was eased for them with a limited agreement between the countries in 2020. Biden kept many of Trump’s tariffs in effect.
Golden’s argument on tariffs could also factor into his potential 2026 run for governor. While he has a better record than any other Maine Democrat in winning difficult and high-profile elections, he could face a crowded primary in which opponents could seize on his alignment with Republicans on issues from trade to energy.
“Tariffs can be a useful tool when implemented in a responsible, targeted way,” U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the 1st District, said in a statement. “But these broad, indiscriminate tariffs will only drive up costs for hardworking Americans and make it more difficult for businesses to stay competitive.”
