California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Trump administration in federal court Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners, arguing that Trump does not have the right.to use certain emergency powers to impose them.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,
argues that Trump doesn’t have the presidential authority to unilaterally impose tariffs using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act because it “violates the separations-of-powers doctrine.”
“Trump claims this law is the reason he can impose these tariffs, and he is wrong,” Bonta said at a news conference alongside Newsom in Stanislaus County, in California’s Central Valley. “The truth is the IEEPA does not apply here. Trump has had to resort to creating bogus national emergencies that defy reason.”
“It’s the worst own-goal in the history of this country,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said. “One of the most self-destructive things that we’ve experienced in modern American history.”
With 40 million people and a large, outward-facing economy that accounts for 14 percent of US GDP, California looks set to bear the brunt of the economic damage forecasters expect from recent gyrations.
Newsom’s office says California — which would be the world’s fifth-largest economy if it were an independent country — could lose billions of dollars in revenue if Trump’s tariff policies shrink international trade.
Trump has long prized tariffs as a tool to achieve what he says is the urgent task of rebalancing America’s trading relationships, and pledged on the campaign trail that he would hit imports with extra levies.
Initial punitive tariffs against Mexico and Canada were built on with his self-declared “Liberation Day,” which saw onerous charges imposed on scores of countries, including allies and partners.
Many of those duties have since been paused, but their chaotic announcement sent global stock markets into spasms, wiping out trillions of dollars of value.
The state asks the court to declare the tariffs void and block their implementation.
Newsom continued, “Impacts of these tariffs are disproportionately being felt here in California, the No. 1 manufacturing state in America, a state that will be significantly impacted by this unilateral decision by the president of the United States.”
Newsom said Trump’s economic mismanagement was costing everyday Americans — including many who voted for Trump — dearly, all while feathering the nests of billionaire donors and friends.
The United States, he said, has gone in a matter of weeks “from free capitalism to crony capitalism, just like that.”
“This is the personification of corruption…this is smash-mouth, in-your-face, every minute of every day, every hour.
“How in the hell are we sitting by and allowing this to happen?” said Newsom, who is widely expected to put himself forward as a candidate for the presidency in 2028.
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A Democrat, denounced Republicans who control the House and the Senate for not challenging Trump.
“Where the hell is Congress? Where the hell is Speaker [Mike] Johnson? Do your job. They’re sitting there passively as this guy wrecks the economy in the United States of America, which has dominated the global economy,” he said.
Newsom said California will defend people who voted for Trump, who he said didn’t follow through on his promises.
“I’m here because they’re disproportionately hurt by this, by the guy that’s betrayed them,” he said. “Donald Trump is betraying the people of the Central Valley. He is betraying the people that supported him. Donald Trump has turned their back, his back, on his supporters. We will not turn our back on those that supported Donald Trump. We will have their back.”
The legal action launched Wednesday argues that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump has used to impose levies as high as 145 percent, does not grant him the authority to put tariffs on goods coming into the United States.
“We’re asking the court to rein in the president… and uphold the Constitution,” Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters.
“The president is yet again acting as if he’s above the law, he isn’t.”
Bonta said the power to impose tariffs rests with Congress, and the suit sought to ensure his actions were rolled back.
“It’s simple, Trump does not have the authority to impose these tariffs. He must be stopped.”
The case is the latest of more than a dozen lawsuits that California has filed against the Trump administration.
A White House spokesman quoted by local media dismissed the lawsuit.
“Instead of focusing on California’s rampant crime, homelessness, and unaffordability, Gavin Newsom is spending his time trying to block President Trump’s historic efforts to finally address the national emergency of our country’s persistent goods trade deficits,” the spokesman said.
AFP