WASHINGTON — President Trump found an unusual ally across the aisle in his escalating trade fight with Canada: retiring Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, a Democrat whose district sits along the US-Canada border.
Golden (D-Maine), who has previously sided with some of Trump’s tougher trade moves, cautioned Canadian leaders that taking on the United States in a tariff battle is unlikely to end in their favor.
“If Canada thinks they’re better off without our goods, I wish them good luck,” Golden told the Portland Press Herald. “I suspect in the long run, it won’t go well for them.”
The Maine congressman, who is not seeking another term, represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District — a Trump-friendly area that voted for the former president in the last three elections. Golden also supported Trump’s earlier tariffs on Canadian imports this year.
Trump intensified the US-Canada trade dispute late last week by imposing a 50% tariff on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods, a list that includes beer, cheese, electronics and other products. The move followed a breakdown in trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa.
Canadian officials responded Tuesday with a plan to match the US measures dollar for dollar beginning Sept. 8, proposing tariffs of 15% to 50% on about 700 categories of American-made products.
The Trump administration has already warned that it will answer with further retaliation if Canada moves ahead with those countertariffs.
Canada remains the United States’ largest trading partner, though cross-border commerce accounts for a far bigger share of Canada’s overall economy than it does for the US.
Golden is one of a handful of House Democrats who hail from a swing district. He declined to seek another term, citing threats his family has faced.
“America’s broken trade order decimated domestic manufacturing and Maine’s heritage industries, all to uphold a system where we consume far more than we produce,” Golden said earlier this year after the Supreme Court nixed Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs.
“Tariffs remain a proven tool to restore balance and tilt the scales back in favor of American manufacturing.”
Almost all of Maine’s congressional delegation has criticized the trade feud with Canada, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who warned it could wreak havoc on Maine’s lobstermen.
On Tuesday, Trump fumed on Truth Social that of all the trade disputes he’s navigated, “Canada is easily the most difficult and unreasonable.”
“They feel entitled, but they are not a State, and will be entitled no longer!” he added.
On Thursday, he signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario, which sits between upstate New York and Canada, to “Lake America.”
