Democrats widely blast Trump’s tariffs, but not necessarily tariffs | While Democrats have widely criticized President Trump’s whipsawing trade strategy as chaotic, they’ve displayed little consensus on where the party stands on tariffs overall
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> As Democrats push back against the policies of the second Trump administration, they are struggling to convey a clear stance on tariffs, with many walking a political tightrope amid the rapid shifts in President Trump’s trade agenda.
> While most Democrats have criticized Mr. Trump’s on-again, off-again approach as “chaotic” and “reckless,” they have displayed little consensus about embracing tariffs themselves as a policy tool.
> Their divisions were on display on Sunday morning, as Democratic lawmakers were grilled by talk show hosts about whether their party was taking the right approach by objecting to Mr. Trump’s tariffs while embracing tariffs in principle as a policy tool.
> When pressed by NBC’s Kristen Welker, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, denounced Mr. Trump’s trade strategy but declined to weigh in on whether he thought others in his party were taking the right approach by offering a more nuanced criticism. Ms. Welker pointed out that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had maintained and even expanded some of the tariffs that Mr. Trump enacted in his first term, a move that some progressive Democrats had applauded at the time.
> “I just want to, for myself, tell you a full-throated, unequivocal condemnation of the Trump tariffs,” Mr. Booker said, blaming the trade barriers for roiling the economy and tanking Americans’ savings. “It is all just wrong. It should be condemned.”
> A few Democrats have even aligned themselves with Mr. Trump’s tariffs. Representative Jared Golden of Maine, a Democrat who has consistently won re-election in a Trump-won district, has embraced a 10 percent blanket tariff on imports and twice introduced a bill that would codify such levies.
> And last week Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan broke from others in her party by saying she understood the “motivation” behind Mr. Trump’s tariffs and agreed with him that “we do need to make more stuff in America.”
> When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether there was room for nuanced conversation or if comments like Ms. Whitmer’s were “a mistake,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, sidestepped the question. Instead, she said it was a mistake for Congress to allow Mr. Trump to continue using the “red light, green light” strategy of enacting then revoking tariffs.
> While party leaders insist that Democrats are unified, their muddled opposition has angered some in the Democratic base. House Democrats came under fire this month after the caucus posted a video on X in which Representative Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania defended tariffs as part of a larger strategy to combat “a wrong-for-decades consensus in Washington on free trade.”
> “We as Democrats must speak out forcefully against Trump’s weaponization of tariffs to wreak havoc on the American economy,” wrote Representative Ritchie Torres, Democrat of New York, in response to the video. “Muddled milquetoast messaging only emboldens Trump’s madness.”
!ping CONTAINERS
Tariffs are bad.
This was one of the reasons Harris had a hard time running against this. She had to defend Biden keeping a bunch of Trump’s old ones, adding some himself and not piss off of the unions in MI and PA. So every time she brought up the “Trump Sales Tax” he’d just deflect to Biden keeping his tariffs so how can Tariffs be that bad if he and Biden agee their good?
Its not a sustainable thing if a protectionist GOP is just gonna be the norm now.
Fucking disgusting this party is so fucking cooked
Democrats need to quit being pro-tariff.
This is not a winning message. You can’t be “tariff-lite.” You can’t say Trump or MAGA is a threat to democracy, but “hey I agree on tariffs and we should make more things in America.”
You have to be bold and convincing that Americas past is not Americas future. Low-cost, low-value manufacturing in America is done. Americas manufacturing future lies in high skilled, technical manufacturing, and even then it’s not going to make America the manufacturing hub of the world.
The democrat who can offer that bold and clear vision that contrasts with what republicans offer is who will be the nominee. If we do this “I agree, but hate the approach” shit again we’re gonna look weak and unprincipled.
With all of the economic chaos these tariffs are causing while they’re not even fully *imposed*, it’s such an easy win for the Democrats to just come out and say “tariffs are dumb”. Why aren’t they saying this? Are they stupid?
Trump’s tariffs are bad, but the Democrats’ tariffs are good.
I think the Democrats need some help here. Below is a detailed simulation of what will happen to our economy if we like tariffs:
https://i.redd.it/nkch5kwvysue1.gif