Politics

Democrats see an opening on the economy after Trump’s trade war wreaks havoc on global markets

Published

1 year ago

April 11, 2025

Democrats are targeting Donald Trump’s weakened standing on the economy — even after the president paused his far-reaching reciprocal tariff policy that reverberated across global markets.

In interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers, congressional staffers and media strategists, many in the party see a prime opportunity to attack Trump on a key campaign promise they argue he’s failing to deliver — a message likely to be featured prominently in political ads if the economy continues to falter. Some candidates are already hitting tariffs in campaign launch ads, while the party is planning to capitalize on anger over the economy, among other issues, in upcoming town halls.

It’s an opportunity for Democrats on the economy, a major point of strength for Trump in his presidential campaign last year, even as they conceded the economic crisis had eased somewhat after the president paused some — but not all — tariffs on most countries. On Thursday afternoon, Trump clarified that the combined tariffs on Chinese goods is now at 145 percent. Most other nations will be subject to the 10 percent baseline tariff the administration levied last week. The markets reacted accordingly, with stocks plummeting at the end of the day.

Now, Democrats are banking on rising panic in worldwide markets and fears of a recession to knock Republicans down.

“We heard for five freaking months going into the last election, people beating up Biden and Harris about inflation, and the price of fucking eggs,” said longtime Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, who worked on both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “So why the hell would we make [ads] about tariffs, as opposed to making it about the economy?”

He said Trump is presenting one of the most favorable gateways to Democrats in recent history, imploring Democrats not to squander the week of earned media about a near-global market implosion.

“There is an opportunity here, of historical proportions, given the advantage on the economy writ large that Republicans have had for decades,” he added. “You see Trump underwater on handling the economy and fighting inflation and bringing down costs – that is a major opening and a historic way for Democrats to take away what has been a major positive for Republicans.”

And recent polling backs up that claim that voters are waning on Trump’s economic stewardship. An Economist/YouGov poll of about 1,700 American adults released Wednesday showed Trump’s overall approval rating drop five percentage points from last week, combined with a four percentage-point drop in his handling of the economy. A poll from the Democratic group Navigator Research released Tuesday also showed 55 percent of 1,000 registered voters disapproving of Trump’s handling of the economy, an eight percentage-point swing since the group’s last poll in March. Another recent poll from the liberal group Data For Progress also showed a majority disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.

Not every poll showed dramatic changes. In a poll of 1,400 registered voters released Wednesday that was conducted April 3-7 from Quinnipiac, Trump’s handling of the economy and his overall approval rating remained steady or dropped only slightly.

Democrats and their affiliated groups are already blaming Trump for his scattershot tariff rollout as a way to pummel vulnerable Republicans in elections later this year and heading into the midterms.

Hours before Trump announced the tariff pause, the Democratic-aligned super PAC American Bridge released audio of Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, praising Trump’s tariff plan. Democrat Mike Sacks announced his candidacy Wednesday in a nearly two and a half minute ad. It featured an image of the word “tariff” nine times in bold red font along with a crimson-color graphic of a stock market plunging that was superimposed over the face of his opponent, incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), widely considered one of the most vulnerable House Republicans next cycle.

The Democratic-aligned group Families Over Billionaires, a nonprofit, is putting six figures into an ad running on social media and streaming platforms bashing the Trump administration over tax plans, and Democrats are planning a new round of town halls in GOP-held House districts over the upcoming recess.

Democrats argue the upheaval Trump injected into the economy undercuts the central premise that he campaigned on: that as a businessperson would be best positioned to grow the economy.

“The one thing that American voters want is security and safety. What they don’t want is chaos and uncertainty,” said Alex Jacquez, a former economic adviser to former president Biden who is now chief of policy for Groundwork Collaborative. “I think why you’ve seen such rapid deterioration on his approvals on the economy and on cost of living, tariffs and trade, is because not a single action that he has taken has been in service of addressing people’s number one concern, which is cost of living.”

And that is precisely what has Democratic admakers salivating.

“Keep it simple and keep it tangible and keep it relatable to everyone’s lives here,” said veteran media strategist Julian Mulvey, who has cut ads for Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. He urged Democrats and affiliated groups to not overcomplicate their messaging by talking about esoteric economic concepts like supply chains and capital markets.

Instead, he referenced the “you break it, you own it” doctrine of politics.

“Trump is sort of charging headlong into breaking the economy and, and he’s going to find out when he does,” he said. “Or in the modern vernacular: fuck around and find out.”

The White House, meanwhile, criticized the Democrats’ planned strategy.

“President Trump is the first president in modern American history to take decisive action to finally corner China and restore American Greatness,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. “If Democrats see an opportunity in President Trump and Republicans standing up for everyday Americans and restoring American Greatness, they’re headed for a worse election night than November 5, 2024.”

Several Democratic media strategists acknowledged it’s too early to say what the economy will look like when prime time campaign season hits. But that hasn’t stopped progressive strategists like Chuck Rocha from storyboarding what the anti-Trump attack ads will look like in the coming months.

“The best way to deliver the ad is from one of his voters, a white guy in his 50s who works in a steel mill, works at whatever the place down the street is that says: ‘Look, I don’t really care about either party. I voted for Donald Trump because I thought he would change a rigged system,” Rocha said of a hypothetical ad that features someone speaking directly to camera. “But he’s even rigging it more, and he’s rigging it for himself.”

And that’s on top of the party’s already established playbook around Elon Musk’s sledgehammer to government. Some Democratic ad-makers said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutinck’s comments about “fraudsters” getting Social Security checks was bound to backfire.

It’s something that’s caught the attention of lawmakers too, including Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), who won reelection in a key swing state that Trump flipped last year. The representative is one of 26 Democrats that the Republican campaign arm is targeting in the midterms.

“Market manipulation … that’s what happened,” Horsford said on Wednesday. “On the same day that they’re screwing America.” Horsford was referring to Trump’s social media post this week where the president proclaimed: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY.”

Politics

Media advocates see NYT subpoenas as dangerous threat to a free press

Published

5 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Dangerous. Brazen. Unprecedented. Uncharted territory.

Reaction in the media world has been swift and severe to the issue of subpoenas to five New York Times journalists who reported on security questions involving the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One — a legal maneuver seen as a troubling escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign to control and intimidate independent media outlets.

“The subpoenas are an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations and have a chilling effect on the work of journalists across the country,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Media advocates and analysts expressed dismay at the tactic, even after months in which news organizations drawing President Donald Trump’s ire have been attacked both in courtrooms and in the court of public opinion; media access to corridors of power has been blocked; and a Washington journalist’s home has been searched by federal agents.

Staff lay a carpet on the tarmac before President Donald Trump exits Air Force One upon arriving for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“They have used the levers of power to intimidate and demonize professional journalists who report stories that are unfavorable to the administration’s desired narrative,” said Frank Sesno, a former BLN White House bureau chief who is now a media and public affairs professor at George Washington University.

He called Friday’s subpoenas “dangerous and uncharted territory, but merely an extension of what we have seen from this administration and president.”

“Don’t like a poll? Sue the Des Moines Register,” he said. “Don’t like the way an interview is edited? Sue ‘60 Minutes.’ Don’t like the coverage of the gifted Air Force One? Order the FBI to investigate and subpoena the journalists for what is, by the way, a story that is in the public interest.”

Some of the subpoenas were delivered to reporters at home

Some of the subpoenas were delivered to reporters at their homes, the Times said. Sought by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, they seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan this week.

The new jet in question, a present from Qatar that Trump’s administration spent $400 million to retrofit and upgrade, entered service last week. But the Republican president used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a NATO summit in Turkey.

Air Force One sits on the tarmac as President Donald Trump switches planes at U.S. Air Force Base, RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk Eastern England, on his way back to Washington from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey ,Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the switch had come at the urging of the Secret Service and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. On social media, Trump denied security concerns.

The subpoenas were issued after FBI Director Kash Patel and other Justice Department officials met at the White House on Friday to talk about the matter, according to a person familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Times said the meeting lasted around eight hours.

The fact that the operation was conducted from the White House itself was particularly egregious to analysts like Sesno, who called the coordination “unprecedented.”

“This graphically illustrates the pressure and influence the White House and president have brought to bear on law enforcement that is supposed to be independent and driven by facts, not politics,” he said.

The Justice Department has justified the subpoenas by saying that “to be clear, reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”

“We value and appreciate the important role that the press plays in this country,” the department said in a weekend statement. “But DOJ also plays an important role to make sure that the people entrusted with our nation’s secrets do what they’re supposed to do with that information, which means not sharing classified information.”

The National Press Club called on the Justice Department to immediately withdraw the subpoenas.

“Every American should understand what is at stake,” Mark Schoeff Jr., the club’s president, said in a statement. “When federal agents arrive at the homes of journalists with subpoenas, it is not ordinary law enforcement. It is an extraordinary assault on the freedom of the press that strikes at the heart of the First Amendment.”

Also expressing solidarity with the Times journalists was the White House Correspondents’ Association — which, in less than two weeks, holds its rescheduled dinner, with Trump planning to attend the event that celebrates the First Amendment. The first dinner was scuttled when a shooter opened fire in what prosecutors say was an attempt to kill the president.

“The White House Correspondents’ Association stands with the New York Times reporters who were targeted for doing their jobs to uphold the public’s right to know how its government operates,” said a statement from the group’s president, Weijia Jiang. “The WHCA condemns any act of intimidation against journalists, including attempts to pressure them into revealing sources.”

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in flight on Air Force One after landing at U.S. Air Force Base at RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, Eastern England, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump’s administration has initiated multiple lawsuits against media outlets

Trump’s animosity toward news outlets whose agenda runs counter to his own isn’t new. But in his second presidential term, he has launched an escalation, often harnessing the levers of the federal government or attempting to do so. These efforts have taken place both in actual courtrooms and in the court of public opinion.

The president has sued various news organizations whose coverage he dislikes. He has also threatened to revoke TV broadcast licenses. His Federal Communications Commission chairman is seeking to penalize shows like ABC’s “The View,” where some hosts speak out against Trump, by having the FCC explore revoking its exemption from equal-time rules.

The legal skirmishes include an escalating dispute between the media and Trump’s Defense Department over reporters’ access to the Pentagon. The Times has filed two lawsuits over a policy requiring journalists to be accompanied by escorts at the military complex.

The White House has also battled with The Associated Press over the news organization’s refusal to follow Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico. And it has battled with The Wall Street Journal over reporting about Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to the president — including an article that described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper said bore Trump’s signature.

Last month, the Justice Department withdrew subpoenas it had issued that sought to compel reporters at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to testify before a grand jury, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Post confirmed that one of its journalists received a subpoena from the Trump administration as part of a broader crackdown on media leaks that in January also included the extraordinary step of an FBI search of the home of another journalist at the newspaper and the seizure of her electronic devices. The media world was stunned by the search of the home of reporter Hannah Natanson, who was covering Trump’s transformation of the federal government.

The Times is now gearing up for battle against what its lawyer David McCraw has called “this brazen act.”

In an internal memo seen by the AP, the newspaper’s executive editor, Joseph Kahn, criticized the subpoenas, praised his journalists’ work and said: “We expect to prevail. We have the best legal team in the business. … The law protects news gatherers from this sort of retaliatory abuse of prosecutorial power. It is essential that the courts reaffirm that protection and quash this overreach. We are confident they will in this case.”

___

Jocelyn Noveck covers the intersection of media and entertainment for The Associated Press.

Politics

Maine Democrats grapple with who is best to take over Graham Platner’s movement

Published

5 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Maine Democrats want to hold onto Graham Platner’s progressive base — but they can’t agree on who is best positioned to carry the torch.

That indecision is creating a fractured field heading into an unpredictable late July nominating convention for one of the most important Senate races on the 2026 map. Now, various candidates are rushing to prove they are the most aligned with Platner’s policies, without tying themselves too closely to the disgraced oysterman.

Labor organizations and the national progressive organizing group Our Revolution are backing former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who campaigned with Platner during the primary and got the endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for his unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign earlier this year. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a former Platner surrogate, is also behind Jackson, as are dozens of current and former state lawmakers.

But some state legislators and local activists who had backed Platner are flocking to Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who similarly ran as a progressive in the gubernatorial primary. And former public health official Nirav Shah is touting more progressive policy positions than he did when he ran for governor in an attempt to break off some Platner supporters. Behind the scenes, he is also working to recruit former organizers from Platner’s campaign, according to two people familiar with the strategy and granted anonymity to discuss it.

The trio of former gubernatorial candidates are the leading figures in a crowded field aiming to win over a yet-to-be-selected group of 600 Democratic delegates. Part of that task is convincing Platner’s former supporters that they will carry on the progressive advocacy and fighting spirit that made his candidacy so popular — before he was forced to resign after Blue Light News reported a woman said he had sexually assaulted her. Platner has denied the allegation.

Many of the candidates will make that pitch directly during a debate scheduled for Thursday night. And the stakes couldn’t be higher for national Democrats watching anxiously: Unseating Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is an essential part of the party’s plan to take back control of the Senate this fall.

Platner convincingly won the Democratic Senate primary last month with nearly three quarters of the vote, and had a zealous base of support during the primary. But where his voters and core volunteers go next is unclear.

“People who were vocal supporters of Platner’s have moved to other candidates, and it doesn’t look to me like they moved in a block, that everyone agrees who’s the best next candidate from that movement,” said David Farmer, a Maine Democratic political strategist not involved with the Senate campaign. “And I think that in a truncated process like this, that’s to be expected.”

In just 11 days, Democrats will replace their nominee at a convention in Bangor. This weekend, they will select the delegates who will pick that candidate — a process playing out across all of the state’s 16 counties, with campaigns seeking to recruit and organize delegates who will vote in their favor.

Unions, who were a key Platner booster in his primary against Gov. Janet Mills, have largely gone to Jackson, a logger and longtime union member. The Maine AFL-CIO endorsed Jackson over the weekend, citing his support of workers’ issues in the Maine legislature, along with his track record of winning over rural and working-class voters.

Troy Jackson, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks during a demonstration outside of a federal immigration office on July 14, 2026, in Scarborough, Maine.

Some of Platner’s biggest supporters in the state House are beginning to coalesce around Bellows, however. That includes state Rep. Valli Geiger, who had been floated by Platner as a potential replacement before she passed on a run. In a Facebook post, Geiger cited Bellows’ track record of standing up to President Donald Trump as secretary of state, along with the fact that she “did not declare as a candidate until after Graham Platner announced he was withdrawing from the race unlike the unseemly rush of so many ambitious men.”

Reached via text, Geiger declined to be interviewed about her support for Bellows.

State Rep. Gary Friedmann, who also previously endorsed Platner, said he is all-in for Bellows. While he agrees with Jackson’s stances and called his association with Sanders and Our Revolution “very compelling,” Friedmann hinted at something Democrats have voiced worry about behind the scenes: That Jackson struggles as a compelling public speaker.

“When it comes to standing up, if there’s a debate with Susan Collins, or the messaging that comes from both candidates, I think Shenna is extremely articulate and compelling,” Friedmann said.

He added: “I think that having a woman to voice that platform is gonna be very important.”

All of the candidates are still figuring out exactly how to capture Platner’s support without tying themselves too closely to him as an individual. A letter circulated by former Platner campaign volunteers that racked up hundreds of signatures as of Tuesday called for the candidate replacing him to adopt a string of progressive commitments on issues including health care, housing and ending “forever wars.” Both Jackson and Bellows signed onto the letter.

During a virtual rally hosted by Our Revolution on Monday, Jackson took time to “acknowledge what everyone on this call has been through” while asking Platner’s supporters to rally behind him, though he never mentioned the oysterman by name.

“I know that there’s real pain, anger, disappointment, and I’m not going to try and to minimize that,” Jackson said. “But look, this movement has always been bigger than one person. It’s about taking on a system rigged against working people.”

Joseph Geevarghese, who runs Our Revolution, called on the movement Platner emboldened to get involved in the delegate process outlined by the Maine Democratic Party.

“This is the perfect opportunity for us to show the establishment that we can organize and win within the system that they created, the Democratic Party process,” he said on the call.

A person close to Bellows, granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, also acknowledged this dilemma for candidates, calling it “a really delicate dance to walk.”

“It’s not like she’s trying to be Graham Platner or be someone she’s not,” the person said. “She is able to be herself, and I think she, ideologically, is a great bridge for people who were very disheartened by what happened with Platner, but still extremely pissed off about Susan Collins and the Senate majority, and what’s happening in Washington, D.C.”

Dr. Nirav Shah, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to reporters outside an office for GOP Sen. Susan Collins on July 14, 2026, in Biddeford, Maine.

While Shah’s campaign is recruiting former Platner supporters behind the scenes, the former public health official is also making the pitch explicit in public comments.

“I want all former Platner supporters to know: you have a place in this campaign,” Shah wrote on social media shortly after he launched his candidacy last week.

Maine politics was rocked on Monday by ICE agents’ shooting of a 26-year-old man in Biddeford, with potential Senate candidates rallying around getting the federal agency out of Maine. For many Democrats, it was also a reminder of the importance of supporting the party’s eventual nominee, regardless of who it is.

Democratic State Rep. Morgan Rielly, a former supporter of Platner’s, said he told Jackson that he would support him in the primary. But more important, he said, was the goal of defeating Collins this fall.

“[The Democratic nominee] will have my full support and I will be working hard to get them elected,” Rielly said in a text message. “It’s absolutely crucial we are united and Senator Collins loses on election day.”