California Suing Trump Over Tariffs

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is suing Donald Trump over tariffs in an aggressive move to end the president’s stranglehold on global commerce.

Newsom’s lawsuit, announced Wednesday morning with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, is the first challenge from a U.S. state against Trump’s signature foreign policy cudgel.

California, the world’s fifth largest economy, stands to lose billions to tariffs with major state industries from Silicon Valley to agriculture heavily dependent on global trade.

“President Trump’s unlawful tariffs are wreaking chaos on California families, businesses, and our economy — driving up prices and threatening jobs,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re standing up for American families who can’t afford to let the chaos continue.”

The lawsuit is Newsom’s most direct legal challenge to Trump’s agenda since the president retook office in January. The move instantly reignites California’s war with Trump and cements its place atop the resistance, after Newsom spent months appealing to the president for federal disaster relief.

It’s also notable as a unilateral challenge, underscoring the singular importance of the issue in California. Bonta has worked closely with other blue states on previous lawsuits challenging Trump’s immigration policies and federal funding cuts.

Newsom and Bonta’s argument targets the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, the law Trump is using to impose tariffs without congressional approval. The two Democrats argue Trump lacks the authority to levy tariffs under the law, mirroring a similar case filed Monday by a group of U.S. businesses.

Trump is the first president to impose tariffs using the act, which authorizes the president to regulate financial transactions and foreign assets during emergency circumstances. He has defended the move by asserting America’s trade deficits with other countries pose a “national emergency.”

Bonta, however, said the widespread economic fallout and sharp stock market declines from Trump’s whiplash approach on tariffs pose “near-daily threats” that exceed the bounds of presidential power outlined in the law.

“The President’s chaotic and haphazard implementation of tariffs is not only deeply troubling, it’s illegal,” Bonta said in a statement.

Trump has both threatened tariffs on some nations – only to pull back at the 11th hour – and repeatedly changed the amount imposed on China while also both offering carve outs and saying they aren’t full exemptions.

Back in California, Newsom has scrambled to distance his state from Trump in hopes of fortifying California’s economy. On Monday, he launched a tourism campaign aimed at attracting skittish Canadian visitors back to state beaches and national parks.

He’s also leveraging the state’s economic prowess — as well as its outsized influence over tech policy and climate standards, among other major industries — in hopes of forging “strategic” alliances with countries eyeing retaliatory measures on U.S. goods. Newsom earlier this month asked world leaders to spare California-made products like almonds, wine and Hollywood flicks from retaliatory tariffs.