Democrats and the corporate media have pulled out all the stops to oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to rebalance global trade in favor of American companies and consumers. But as Democrats reflexively bash Trump’s tariff agenda, many of them seem to have forgotten that they once led the charge against unfair trade deals and the offshoring of American jobs.

Fortunately, the magic of the internet means nothing is ever truly forgotten. Here are just a few times Democrats championed the very policies the Trump administration is now pursuing.

Schumer’s Amnesia on China Tariffs

The big news on Monday was President Trump’s announcement that he is prepared to impose an additional 50 percent tariff on China if the communist nation does not remove its 34 percent tariff on American goods. Shortly after that news broke, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X that Trump is “threatening to send America right into a recession.”

But not too long ago, Schumer was praising Trump for slapping tariffs on China.

“Look, I think the president is doing the right thing,” Schumer said back in 2018. “China has been taking advantage of us for two decades. They’re stealing our intellectual property which means stealing our good-paying jobs.”

Schumer went on to say that he aligned more closely with Trump on the issue than he did with former Presidents Obama or Bush.

“China of course will respond,” he said. “But if they know we’re strong and we’re not gonna back off, they will back off. They have far more to lose than we do. They have a $300 billion trade surplus with us.”

It seems Schumer would do well to take some advice from himself just seven years ago.

Obama Insists on Trade Reciprocity

In 2018, Former President Barack Obama also demanded fair trade in a statement that, if said today by Trump, would undoubtedly trigger immediate liberal outrage.

“It’s also proper for advanced economies like the United States to insist on reciprocity from nations like China,” Obama said. It was a rare moment of economic wisdom from the 44th president – even if he never actually did anything to follow through on it.

Six years prior to that, in the 2012 presidential debates, Obama proudly defended his administration’s tariffs on Chinese tire imports – a move that directly contradicts today’s Democratic narrative about trade protectionism.

“We put a stop to it, and as a consequence saved jobs throughout America,” Obama said. “I have to say that Governor Romney criticized me for being too tough in that tire case. He said it wouldn’t be good for American workers, and that it would be protectionist, but I tell you those workers don’t feel that way. They feel as if they finally had an administration that was going to take this issue seriously.”

Now, however, amid yet another outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Obama is claiming that Trump imposing tariffs on China is “undemocratic.”

Bernie Sanders Champions Fair Trade Deals & Protecting American Manufacturing

In 2008, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered a warning about unfair trade that sounds eerily like President Trump’s current rhetoric. Sanders argued that outsourcing was stripping American workers of manufacturing jobs — jobs that are the economic backbone of working-class communities.

“Somehow, Madam President, we are going to create wealth in America, and good paying jobs in America, as we shut down plants, we move to China,” he said in a speech on the Senate floor. “Corporations there pay workers 20, 30 cents an hour, and we bring the product back into this country. Anyone who goes shopping in a mall knows how difficult it is today to find a product made in America.”

Now, however, Sanders has been conspicuously silent as Trump has followed through on protecting American jobs.

Nancy Pelosi’s 1996 Trade Prophecy

In a fiery 1996 speech on the House floor, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered a blistering critique of the United States’ growing trade imbalance with the world, specifically calling out how American tariffs on Chinese goods paled in comparison to Chinese tariffs on U.S. products.

Pelosi mentioned that while U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods averaged just two percent, China’s tariffs on American goods soared to 35 percent.

“Is that reciprocal?” she asked. She further demanded truly reciprocal trade measures, arguing that the “status quo” was decimating American manufacturing and economic interests.

Calling the trade relationship a “job loser,” Pelosi’s words feel almost prophetic nearly three decades later.

“In terms of jobs, this is the biggest and cruelest hoax of all,” Pelosi said. “Not only do we not have market access, not only do they have prohibitive tariffs, not only are our exports not let in very specifically, but China benefits with at least, at least, 10 million jobs from U.S.-China trade.”

At the time, Pelosi was celebrated by the media and her Democrat colleagues as a great champion of American jobs – despite the fact that she never passed any policies to actually help American workers. Yet now Trump is being excoriated for following through on rebalancing global trade.

Joe Biden Celebrates Tariffs

In 2024, Former President Joe Biden proudly announced new tariffs on imports from China that would “ensure that our workers are not held back by unfair trade practices.”

Then Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre celebrated the move as “protecting American workers and businesses from China’s unfair trade practices,” using language remarkably similar to Trump’s current rhetoric.

Of course, Biden only got the idea for tariffing China from Trump in the first place – he largely just extended the tariffs Trump implemented during his first term.

Louise Slaughter’s TPP Takedown

Democrat Rep. Louise Slaughter stood with Republicans in 2016 to denounce the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), warning that the trade deal would devastate American workers.

“We are here to send a message loud and clear to this administration: We oppose the TPP because it would be bad for New York and bad for the entire country,” Slaughter declared.

“I have yet to see a trade bill that benefited the American manufacturer and the American worker,” she said. “This trade deal will ship more American jobs overseas, lower wages here at home, and force us to do business with notorious human rights violators such as Malaysia, a country with one of the most egregious records of human trafficking. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to stand up for the American worker and oppose the TPP.”

A year later, Trump officially withdrew the United States from the TPP.

Democrat Rep. Jared Golden Breaks Ranks on Tariffs

Rep. Jared Golden of Maine has become a lone Democrat voice backing President Trump’s tariff plan. Golden has been vocal about his party’s hypocrisy on the issue, stating he is “pleased the president is building his tariff agenda on the foundation of a universal 10 percent tariff like the one I proposed in the BUILT USA Act.”

In an interview earlier this year with Jennifer Rooks on “Maine Calling,” Golden acknowledged the Democrat Party’s history of supporting tariffs of their own, blasting his colleagues’ sudden change of heart as soon as Trump was elected.

“The fact of the matter is these, you know, first round of tariffs, that the country is seeing new tariffs in quite a while, came under the first Trump administration,” Golden said. “What really got my eye was when I recognized that the Biden administration had not removed any of them, and in fact was adding to them.”

These examples are just the start of Democrats’ sudden reversal on tariffs. Once again, liberal leaders have exposed themselves as more interested in political theater and virtue signaling than standing on principle and following through on promises to protect American workers.

Sarah Katherine Sisk is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in Economics and Journalism. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.