‘It’s just getting worse’: anger in Maine over Trump’s trade war with close neighbor Canada

President’s tariffs have hurt fishers, loggers and others in a state with deep bonds to Canada – will voters show their displeasure in the midterms?

View image in fullscreenMolly London in Piscataquis county, Maine. Photograph: Greta RybusIt was an ideal summer to cut trees.

The weather in Maine’s Penobscot county – one of the most heavily forested counties in a state dense with trees – was warm and dry. Yet even as the county’s wood had grown to an ideal size to harvest, the machines Molly London typically uses sat idle.

London and her husband, Alex, who started a logging business nearly 10 years ago, had been waiting weeks for replacement machine parts that were no longer stocked locally because tariffs had made them too expensive.

By August, she and her husband decided to shut down their business, WW London Woodlot Management Company, exhausted after years of fighting ever-climbing costs.

“It just didn’t feel right any more,” she said. “We’ve been losing for a long time, and this is just getting worse.”

For centuries, Maine’s economy has been inextricably tied to logging. Penobscot styled itself the “lumber capital of the world” in the 19th century, and today, hulking timber lorries still take up half of the road when they charge down Maine’s rural interstates. The aroma from spruce and fir trees can be smelled through a closed car window.

Logging’s health is a crucial bellwether for the overall state of its economy, and things are looking bleak in the midst of a trade war with Canada and record-high diesel prices.

Democrats are hoping the frustration will finally unseat Republican Susan Collins, whose loss is crucial in helping the party win a majority in the US Senate. But after the fallout of Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race in July amid sexual assault allegations, the party has been scrambling to make up for lost time.

In his first campaign ad, Troy Jackson – formerly the state’s senate president who lost a bid to be the state’s governor earlier this year – immediately labeled himself as a “fifth-generation logger”.

“Susan Collins is just a rubber-stamp for the wealthy elite in this country,” Jackson said in another campaign ad.

Sara Gideon, a former state representative, had run similar attack ads in 2020, telling voters that Collins is “Not For You Anymore” – an attempt to tie her to Trump and the wealthy elite.