Democratic Congressman Bucks Party on Tariffs

Congressman Jaren Golden occupies an unusual place on Capitol Hill: He is a Democrat who supports President Trump's tariffs. "My biggest worry is that they're going to do this and lose faith and political will and back away," he tells Axios, adding that he would vote no on a pending House measure to try to kill the tariffs. In an interview with the Portland Press Herald in Maine, Rep. Golden defended tariffs as a tool to revive manufacturing in his state, even if they do cause short-term pain. "I have a lot of confidence that I have a lot of constituents that understand this trade-off," he tells the newspaper.

The Hill describes Golden as a moderate who has been known to buck his party, including last month when he voted in favor of a Republican bill to avert a shutdown, thus becoming the only House Democrat to do so. On tariffs, Golden has introduced his own measure to impose a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports. Trump did that and more, though Golden is not going to criticize. "I'm not ready to say that he overshot with this," Golden said. "I'm not ready to say that 20% or 25% is too aggressive compared to some of the practices that we have faced from places like China." He also shrugged off the stock market turmoil, telling Axios that "the vast majority of Americans have no stocks." (More Jared Golden stories.)