Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and President Donald Trump are diametrically opposed on too many issues to count, but Sanders and Trump do share a belief that America’s outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries has caused great harm to American workers and prevented too many from prospering in a middle class life style.
How to fix that problem is where Sanders and Trump differ, and Sanders is slamming Trump’s “trade chaos” as “rapidly undermining our economy and making it impossible for households and small businesses to function.”
Even as Trump paused his universal “reciprocal” tariffs against American allies like E.U. countries, Sanders still blasted the President’s use of “emergency powers” to bypass Congress, calling Trump’s unilateral tariff assessments “another step toward authoritarianism.”
In a statement, Sanders reiterates his long-held opposition to “disastrous free trade deals with China, Mexico and other low-wage countries.” The Senator says the U.S. needs “trade policies that benefit American workers, not just large corporations.”
Trump’s trade chaos is undermining our economy and hurting American families.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 9, 2025
If Republicans have their way on tariffs and their huge tax bill, most Americans will see their taxes go up, while those on top get a big break.
We need a trade policy that puts working people first. pic.twitter.com/t25Wll41LK
Sanders also recognizes tariffs can be a “powerful tool” to produce this result and discourage outsourcing jobs, but he argues for target tariffs rather than “Trump’s chaotic across-the-board tariffs.”
Low-wage countries should be the target, Sanders says, not Germany or France — countries, he asserts, that aren’t stealing American jobs through unfair trade deals or practices.
“Corporations,” Sanders says, “are not shutting down plants in America and moving them to Switzerland.”
In the comments on X, Trump supporters slammed Sanders for his statement on Trump’s “chaos” — which they applaud as a strong negotiating tactic.
In an effort to discredit Sanders on tariffs, a few commenters posted videos of the Senator from 2008 talking about free trade. Yet his argument then — against unfettered free trade — sounds largely the same as his argument now.
— Mental.Miss.Information(@wuz_dis_button) April 9, 2025
Back then, Sanders called out Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for his support of free trade, but Democrats clearly have also owned it — Bill Clinton supported NAFTA and signed it into law in the 1993. Notably, Republican George H.W. Bush negotiated and signed the original NAFTA in 1992.
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