Maine Wire Funder Leonard Leo Suing Trump Over Tariffs
I was wondering why Maine’s premier right-wing news outlet The Maine Wire hasn't done much coverage of Trump's tariffs or their harmful impact on Maine given that its biggest story in the news this week. Turns out, one of their major donors, Leonard Leo of the right-wing Federalist Society, is suing Trump over the tariffs!
As the Guardian reports, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group funded by Leo and petro billionaire Charles Koch, has filed a lawsuit against Trump’s tariffs on exports from China, arguing that his justification under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is unlawful.
“His attempt to use the IEEPA this way not only violates the law as written, but it also invites application of the supreme court’s major questions doctrine, which tells courts not to discern policies of ‘vast economic and political significance’ in a law without explicit congressional authorization,” the group stated.
Leonard Leo, who owns a home on Mount Desert Island, is most known for his work remaking the Supreme Court into a far-right super legislature responsible for overturning Roe vs. Wade, undermining voting rights laws, and giving Trump immunity from criminal prosecution. He assisted Justice Clarence Thomas in his confirmation hearings and led campaigns to support the nominations of right-wing Justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Leo founded a network of conservative dark money groups, including the 85 Fund and the Concord Fund, which funds political right-wing nonprofit pressure groups like the conservative Maine Policy Institute and its propaganda arm, The Maine Wire.
Leo has funded several other right-wing causes in Maine. As the Bangor Daily News reported, the Concord Fund gave $573,000 in fiscal year 2022 to the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association, an anti-offshore wind group. He has also given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Dinner Table PAC, a political action committee co-founded by far-right media star and stochastic terrorist Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn), the “Libs of Tik Tok of Maine.
Since Leonard Leo began funding the Maine Wire, it has been able to significantly increase its reach and hired several more staff members to carry out its mission to demonize immigrants, trans people and people of color. Like Fox News and other conservative outlets, the Maine Wire’s coverage this week has mostly ignored the impact of tariffs in favor of sensational stories about Maine Democrats “mandating” LGBTQ education, the scourge of Chinese pot growers and a Black man busted for drug trafficking.
What little coverage it has devoted to Trump’s tariffs has been fairly mild by comparison. Since the tariffs took effect this month, it has run two stories about the tariffs. One story published on April 4 with the headline “Pingree Rages While Golden Remains Cautiously Optimistic on Trump’s “Liberation Day” Tariffs” focuses on the division between Maine two Democratic House members on the “controversial tariffs.” Another one published on April 3 declares that Collins opposes Trump’s emergency declaration “imposing tariffs on Canada for not doing enough to stop illegal drugs from coming into the United States.” Nevermind the fact that in 2024, a mere 43 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the northern border.
Naturally, the response to the two stories from Wire readers Susan Collins have been nearly unanimously pro-tariffs.
“You are stupid. You must like Maine kids to die from drugs,” says “Sandy.
“Well Susan , you old potato picker, we the people prefer to keep the murderous terrorist cartels and their DEADLY poisons OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” says “Olde Crone.”
“Suzie Dear, the Maine Lobstermen have borne the cost of Fentanyl,” says Dr. Ed. “I’ve helped bury a few — it’s the leading cause of death of Lobstermen under age 50. And a tariff on IMPORTED lobster would help us, let’s can it here!”
However, Matt Gagnon, the CEO of Maine Policy Institute, has been unequivocally critical of the Trump tariffs, comparing them to the disastrous 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff that plunged the US further into the Great Depression.
“We’ve seen this for 200 friggin years! When these types of things are done, the fantasy land of the arguments that says we’re all going to be richer if we had these tariffs does not materialize,” blustered Gagnon in an April 3 segment on his WGAN morning show.
He added that the tariffs were “one of those rare instances” where the “eggheads, the elite, the experts that everyone so despises” are actually right. Not surprisingly callers to his show didn’t buy the argument because it’s pretty hard to “trust the experts” when right-wingers like Gagnon have spent their careers vilifying people who know things like doctors, economists, educators and academics.
All of this makes me wonder, why hasn’t the Maine Wire reached out to Leonard Leo for comment on why he opposes these tariffs? After all, the Maine Wire has done several fawning interviews with Leo over the past several years. It is probably the only media outlet in the state that can get him to sit down for interview.
I encourage everyone to contact Maine Wire Editor & Chief Steve Robinson and urge him to get the exclusive interview with Leonard Leo on why these tariffs are harmful to Mainers. Even better, let’s do a town hall! Here’s my pitch:
“Leonard Leo is a true patriot who was instrumental in bringing a conservative majority to the Supreme Court. He funds essential journalism like the Maine Wire that holds our socialist leaders in Maine accountable! So why is he suing Trump over his America First economic plan to bring prosperity back the American people? Tell the Maine Wire to hold a town hall with Mr. Leo so we can ask him why he opposes our President’s America First Agenda!”