U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
The Supreme Court is preparing to hear a CEO's lawsuit against President Donald Trump over his claiming of emergency powers to unilaterally impose tariffs, and the executive is confident that his company will prevail.
Learning Resources CEO Rick Woldenberg is asserting that Trump's use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977 to slap tariffs on imported goods without the consent of Congress is "unlawful." He told MSNBC on Tuesday that the tariffs amount to an "asphyxiating tax" of millions of dollars each year and are inhibiting his company's ability to make business decisions.
"The sizeof the problem and the size ofthe implications meant that wehad to take action to defendourselves. I think that thecase is actually pretty simple," he said. "The government brags thatit's $50 billion a month inproceeds. That's just notbearable. And they've alsopromised that this is permanent.So we either choose to pay atax we believe is unlawful, orwe challenge it and ask thecourt to review it and decide."
Woldenberg went on to say that he and his legal team were pushing for a decision to come down shortly after Wednesday's oral arguments. His main argument is that in 2024, his tariff-related expenses were $0, but in 2025 they will be approximately $14 million — with that cost potentially doubling in 2026.
"We're behavingthe way someone would behave ifthey had a sudden andirreversible expense of $14million," he said. "We're hiring fewerpeople. We're spending lessmoney on [capital expenditures]. We'redeveloping fewer products.We're reducing our marketingspend. It's it's bad forbusiness because it's divertingus from exercising our businessjudgment, which is how we gotthis far and what we want to dogoing forward."
"I think that themath that the administration isshowing is a one sided equation.They don't really care to thinkabout the costs," he continued. "Theycontend that there areadvantages that I think areprincipally negotiatingadvantages. But many of the theproblems that they say they'vethey've solved were problemsthat are a result of hightariffs."
Watch the segment below:
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