Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden urged his party to pump the brakes on their reflexive, hair-trigger responses to Republican advances in an interview with The Washington Post on Friday.
Golden expressed frustration with Democrats’ tendency to quickly characterize President Donald Trump’s agenda as “dictatorial or illegal,” arguing such rhetoric undermines the party’s credibility. Democratic lawmakers have intensified such language primarily in response to the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) broad reshuffling efforts across several executive agencies to eliminate wasteful spending and restructure the priorities of taxpayer-funded programs.
The congressman, who represents Maine’s most competitive district, appeared to extend an olive branch to Republicans, calling for bipartisan cooperation on tariffs, energy and reducing government waste.
“I don’t think that it’s been very effective, the Dem response, so far,” Golden told the outlet. “In fact, I’m frustrated by it. If you make everything Defcon 5, then eventually nothing is Defcon 5, you know what I mean? And on questions of overreach of constitutional authority, it’s not always so cut and dry.”
Let’s keep the conversation about tariffs honest by telling the full story: pic.twitter.com/4y0CC7ypvB
— Congressman Jared Golden (@RepGolden) February 5, 2025
Many House Democrats have employed harsh rhetoric to criticize Trump’s fast-moving agenda to clean up wasteful federal spending that has poured millions of taxpayer dollars into far-left causes, arguing the president’s actions signify an autocratic takeover of the country. Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley promised to bring “fire” to the GOP on Tuesday over Elon Musk’s involvement in the Treasury Department and other agencies, while Democratic New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver threatened to “shut down” the Senate over the DOGE’s alleged “hostile takeover” of the federal government. Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar even argued Trump’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) resembled the “beginning of a dictatorship.”
Rep. @IlhanMN Omar (D-MN) at USAID: “This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like.” pic.twitter.com/KhIYsr2col
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2025
Golden described his party’s response to Trump’s policies as “undisciplined,” arguing the immediate claims of “unconstitutional” overreach touch on supposedly nuanced, and not self-evident, issues. The congressman also warned that “swing[ing] at every pitch” in response to Trump’s actions could obscure the more substantial policies the party should be opposing.
Elon Musk, the richest man on earth, is dismantling USAID, which feeds the poorest children on earth.
This is oligarchy at its worst.
Musk’s actions are not only immoral and unconstitutional, they are counterproductive to our standing in the world.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 5, 2025
“But a part of my concern with responding to everything with outrage is it obscures — potentially — what they actually do. … Like if they put forward a deficit-busting tax policy, it’s just terrible for the country. Deficit-funded tax breaks for the rich,” he added.
While Golden joined others in his party in criticizing Elon Musk’s DOGE, he also argued that “you’d be hard-pressed” to find anyone who opposes streamlining federal processes and cutting frivolous spending. He additionally noted that constitutional questions surrounding Musk’s initiatives have polarized an issue area otherwise “ripe for bipartisan work.”
“Elon Musk is just, I think, getting out ahead of the president’s skis, and is just going in there and moving fast and aggressively, arising concerns and questions of ‘Is this legal? Is this not legal?’ is creating a headache for the president’s agenda on an issue that otherwise would be ripe for bipartisan work,” he said.
A handful of high-profile Democrats, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have repeatedly signaled a similar desire to cooperate with the Trump administration — including on proposals to which the party is historically more opposed.
Golden is a member of the House Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of self-described “pragmatic” Democrats. He was elected in 2018.
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