'Path is catastrophic': CEO with 500 employees explains why he’s suing Trump

24 April

President Donald Trump in the White House on March 20, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)

Critics of President Donald Trump's steep new tariffs — from liberal economists Paul Krugman and Robert Reich to right-wing students of the late economist Milton Friedman — are warning that they will be painful for both businesses and consumers.

At a town hall hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), a self-described "democratic socialist," said he favors some tariffs if they are "used selectively" but not "arbitrarily." And Sanders described Trump's approach to tariffs "absolutely counterproductive."

One of the business owners who is sounding the alarm about Trump's tariffs is Learning Resources CEO Rick Woldenberg. And he laid out his reasons for suing the Trump Administration over the tariffs during a late April interview with CBS News.

In an article published by CBS News on April 24, reporter Aimee Picchi explains, "Woldenberg's business has 500 employees and sells thousands of learning-based toys like Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog and the Pretend & Play Calculator Cash Register. Its lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., accuses Mr. Trump and other members of his administration of overreaching the president's authority in imposing the broad-based import duties."

Woldenberg, according to Picchi, "said he expects his company's sales to drop 25 percent this year as consumers scale back spending due to the economic impact of the tariffs."

"Prior to Mr. Trump's trade war," Picchi notes, "the CEO had forecast an 8 percent increase in sales. Economists on Wall Street say the tariffs will slow U.S. economic growth while boosting inflation."

Woldenberg, Picchi reports, may not be able to move his production out of Mainland China fast enough to avoid the effects of Trump's new tariffs. The CEO also has factories in Vietnam and India.

Woldenberg told CBS News, "This path is catastrophic. Forces have been unleashed in the economy — the world economy as well as the U.S. economy — that will have consequences that will be irreparable…. If we had six to 10 products that were made in America, we could go and say, 'Look! Made in America. You want made in America? Here's Made in America. We can't even find somebody to make six or 10 products."

Read the full CBS News article at this link.

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