President Trump just exempted a handful of Canadian imports from his own 50% tariffs, and the only Americans who get relief are the ones represented by a senator in a toss-up race. The rest of the country still pays the price.

The White House announced Friday that certain goods — plywood sheets, packing boxes, paper products, some machinery, and nine agricultural products including blueberries, potatoes, apples, and seaweed — will be pulled off the tariff list effective Oct. 30. The stated reason: to "better serve the public interest" and offset the burden on U.S. commerce.

Both The Guardian and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution frame this as a lifeline for Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is locked in a tight re-election fight against Democrat Troy Jackson, a former logger and Maine state senator. Collins confirmed she pushed Trump's trade ambassador Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick directly, saying she asked for "tariff relief for these important products" and vowed to "continue working directly with administration officials to seek additional relief."

Notice the word "additional." Collins is already telegraphing that the exemptions don't go far enough — and that more carve-outs are coming if she keeps her seat.

Here's what the establishment coverage buries: these tariffs were crushing Maine businesses from the start. Collins herself acknowledged that farmers rely on specialized equipment and materials from Canada that are "unavailable from American suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense." So the administration slapped tariffs on goods Americans literally cannot source domestically, then selectively removed them as a political favor. That's not trade policy. That's leverage.

The numbers tell the story. After Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Canadian goods starting Aug. 22, Canada hit back with retaliatory tariffs of 15% to 50% on $20 billion worth of American products. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said U.S. auto exports to Canada have fallen 10% and American exports to Canada have dropped more than 20%. "US tariffs have upended a trade bargain that's existed for decades," Carney said. "They've raised costs for American families."

Canada later withdrew its tariffs on American seafood, which helped Maine's fisheries. So the pattern is clear: tariffs go on, damage gets done, and then selective exemptions get handed out to the politically connected — while everybody else eats the higher prices.

Collins has broken with her party more than any other Republican senator since Trump took office, according to a New York Times analysis. But The Guardian notes her efforts to vote against Trump's policies have "rarely succeeded" in his second term. The tariff exemptions are what winning looks like when your leverage is an election — not a vote on the floor.

The question neither outlet asks: if these tariffs hurt Maine enough to warrant exemptions five weeks before Election Day, who else across the country is paying the tab without a senator in a competitive race to make the calls? Tariff policy shouldn't depend on whose district is in play.