The MeidasTouch Podcast - Governor Newsom On Courts Blocking Trump Tariffs

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas and California Governor Gavin Newsom break down Trump’s massive court losses invalidating his unilateral tariffs against the world. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Details online. I'm joined by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor, I want to get your reaction to these two federal court orders invalidating Trump's tariffs against the world. Yesterday, the US Court of International Trade granted summary judgment against Donald Trump.

Earlier today, Judge Contreras blocked Trump's tariffs as unlawful. Your reaction, Governor? Well, I mean, it's raining tacos today. I mean, it's not a good day for Donald Trump and his central economic program. These tariffs, which we've said from day one, California, as you know, I was on your show and privileged

of sharing with you and your viewers, we were the first state to introduce a lawsuit under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act. And basically, the judgment said exactly what we said in our brief. And so we're very, very pleased at this moment, this brief moment that these tariffs have been thrown out. But the reality is the federal administration,

at least the Trump administration is now moving to get a stay in federal courts. And I imagine they will be imposing potentially under different rubrics, additional sanctions and poor taxes, which they can impose 15% over 150 day period under the Trade Act. I imagine this is hardly the last we'll hear

about tariffs under the Trump administration. I wanna show this photo that you posted recently about how family businesses and our ports are literally paying the price for Trump's unlawful and disastrous tariffs. Governor, can you give us a sense of what's going on today, May 29th, at the ports of Los Angeles and throughout California actually? Yeah, I mean the ports in LA, they saw 17 cancellations of vessels. They already have seen now as we book in advance in June, 10 cancellations already that we're projecting in June. We had a 15% decline in May in the number of container ships

coming in to Oakland. We're seeing the price pressures. You're seeing that across the country. It impacts the small businesses disproportionately. That's why that DC Circuit Court decision today was so rewarding for small businesses disproportionately. That's why that DC Circuit Court decision today was so rewarding for small businesses. It was on behalf of two children's toy manufacturers, and it was successful, again,

very similar to the California case. And so this has already had an impact, and the impacts would be even more acute as it relates to shortages and supply constraints that are inevitable if this continues. So, look, we're in this chaotic moment. It's self-inflicted by the Trump administration. That chaos continues. The damage has been done.

We can't overstate or understate the impacts of the damage. But we have to, I think, at least applaud our courts. And remember, that international court, which most people don't even know existed, it was a bipartisan. You had a Trump appointee, you had a Reagan appointee, yes, they're still around, and you had a more recent appointee

of a Democratic administration, and they were unanimous in condemning the act, the unilateral decision under the IECP that Trump advanced. You know, Governor, what's concerning though, as well, about what you're saying is when Donald Trump taco'd in Switzerland with China and caved on the 145% tariffs, brought him to 30% tariffs, I think there was some expectation

that all of a sudden a light switch would turn on. He taco'd, light switch would turn on. He taco'd, light switch, ports returned to normal. That's not happening, right? No, and look, he continues to double down on stupid on this stuff. And we've seen it over and over. He loses, he gets more angry. I mean, we could joke about the taco, but that frame, I mean, that came from the financial

times. People are literally making billions and billions and billions of dollars. The financial markets have anticipated Trump's incapacity to be consistent, to provide any stable rationale for his economic policies. They're chaotic. He changes them on a whim, on a basis of a phone call. You could talk about crony capitalism in that frame. And he changes them on the basis of where the markets are going, and people are gaming that out. And so this notion that he was challenged on that point

in the White House yesterday and reacted to it with such disdain only reinforces the likelihood that he'll react accordingly and consistently in this respect by overreacting to it. And that's why I think the next few hours and the next few days will be very interesting. And hardly is he going to, I think, shift course 180 degrees. Let's talk about the people impact in the great state of California. How is this impacting the dock workers, the truckers? What are you seeing? There was a bad jobless claims report

that exceeded expectations this morning nationally. Jobless claims rose 240,000 in the past week, this on the first quarter economic contraction as well. So what are you making of all this? Yeah, I mean, they updated those numbers and instead of 0.3% decline in GP is 0.2%. The fact that we were growing 2.4% and now we're declining as an economy,

the impact that's having in the aggregate, but you asked a specific question about small business. I've met with over a dozen small business members that literally it's complete chill, devastation. A young woman who said, I had to look in the eyes of my eight year old and say, honey, you helped me inspire this business when you were a baby.

It's a baby business, baby supplies. We just made a deal with Target and Walmart and I leveraged the home and I don't know if I can keep the home. That's real. That's because of Trump's unilateral policies, illegal, but unilateral policies. I met with someone I personally bought for the holidays.

I bought my son a bike and an electric component. This guy, he said, thank you. I have your email, because it was part of the receipt. I'm embarrassed to reach out to you. He literally just sent this to me. He goes, I have a whole supply container, but I can't afford the tariffs in China. I literally, it's a family business.

I cannot continue in this business. What can you do, Governor, to help? I said, we have this lawsuit. This was 48 hours ago, and I'm looking forward to emailing him back and reminding him of the impacts, this momentary impact, so this federal court decision today that may give him a reprieve. This is real, and it's consequential, and it's small businesses in particular that are being devastated by this uncertainty.

One of the things you've consistently pointed out as well is that Republican lawmakers do not like these tariffs at all, yet they pretend to be in favor of, they just, I guess just go mute. They go totally silent. And the members of Congress, the House of Representatives and the senators, I mean, it's, if they want to pass legislation on this,

you know, they control both the House and Senate. So, can you speak to that, that you know that these Republicans are not just against it, but very against it, yet they say nothing in the face of catastrophe? Yeah, appalling silence. Shameful, shameful. And they complete, I mean, the decision,

I hope people read both decisions. I mean, it's about the complicity of Congress, the lack of oversight. You're in the majority, do your damn job, co-equal branch of government. I mean, that was the principles of the founding fathers. They lived and died for this fundamental notion of co-equal branches of government, government oversight.

And they completely ceded it to Donald Trump illegally. Donald Trump's taken advantage of that. And of course, there are always exceptions. There are a few courageous elected officials. Interestingly, people that at least speak out like Rand Paul, even Ted Cruz has spoken out against it. But I thought the ultimate expression of where the Republican Party actually is,

is always reflected in the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. They called it the dumbest trade war in history, Donald Trump. So they're all celebrating. The vast majority of these Republican legislative leaders are celebrating this decision quietly. But I think there's a chill because of the expectation, again, of what comes next, because Donald Trump hates

to lose. And he's one thing. If not, he's predictably unpredictable in terms of how he responds to these losses. And one of the things that's very concerning to our viewers as well is Donald Trump's attack on the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. And Trump will say things implying that he wants to fire Powell and then kind of walk it back. And I never said that.

And then, you know, which is kind of, again, it's kind of the whole taco. It's like, what day is it going to be? But again, this has real world implications. And Trump had Chairman Powell at the White House today. He invited Powell. Powell had to come up with a statement immediately, not knowing what the heck Trump was going to post, basically saying at the president House today. He invited Powell. Powell had to come up with a statement immediately, not knowing what the heck Trump was going to post, basically saying, at the president's invitation, Powell met with Trump today at the White House to discuss economic developments.

Then he goes, Powell did not discuss his expectations for monetary policy, except to stress that the path of policy will depend entirely on incoming economic information and what that means for the outlook. Finally, Chairman Powell said that he and his colleagues will set monetary policy as required by law to support maximum employment and stable process

and will make those decisions based solely on careful objective and non-political analysis. I mean, the fact that he even has to say that coming out of the meeting is something, huh? Well, I mean and he has to say it because the markets remember we were all enough to remember a few weeks ago where we were And the chaos and the international markets and and and folks were speed dialing Trump all these folks that you know We're there at the inaugural etc saying what the hell are you doing? Stop talking about Pal stop talking about replacing him.

You appointed him, Mr. President, in the first term. He's your guy, but he's an independent operator. And that is foundational in terms of the full faith and credit of the United States of America. You're putting that at risk. You've already put truth and trust at risk around the globe as it relates to our allies and the impacts we've had on our trading partners.

But when it comes to the markets, he obviously felt that pressure. And look, at the end of the day, the markets last and they bat a thousand. And Donald Trump, if nothing else, has been very sensitive to the markets, particularly the bond market. And so I'm not surprised by that statement by Powell. But this is an area where even Trump recognized his own recklessness. Finally, Governor, just a lot of people across the country

are worried right now. They're nervous. They see this disastrous budget bill. Are we going to lose health care? Are we going to lose our SNAP benefit? What's going to happen to us? What's your message as we go to the American people right now? Well, that got a lot worse, didn't it?

That bill that the House just signed, because it was predicated on getting tariff revenue, getting revenue from these tariffs. Now you can't even count on that, which only further reinforces where Elon Musk himself was just 24 hours ago and saying, this blows a massive hole in the debt in the United States of America.

It's one of the most fiscally irresponsible thing that's happened in our lifetime. And so the US Senate has a chance to fix that and correct for that. And I think today's announcement from these two courts, and I imagine there'll be further discussions with further court decisions that will be very favorable to at least the cause of sanity and rationality

will only put additional pressure on the Senate to right the ship and make dramatic amendments in this bill. But at the end of the day, there's no way they can balance a damn budget unless they do it on the back of working folks and poor folks and completely renege on their commitment to protect the most vulnerable, protect folks under the Medicaid system.

And so we'll continue to be vigilant on that. We'll continue to push back on that. We're now involved now with 22 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Obviously, we'll push back on any cuts to Medicaid. No state, incidentally, has more to lose on that. 3.4 million Americans will lose support if that bill passes and it's disinformed in the United States Senate here in California. So we have a lot to lose, but we also assert ourselves and we have a lot of opportunity to do more in that space coming in the future. Governor Newsom, thank you so much for your time. Good to be with you.

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