George Skelton: Yes, Newsom suing Trump over tariffs was political. It was also necessary

George Skelton, Los Angeles Times on Apr 22, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Give Gov. Gavin Newsom credit. You can call it grandstanding and opportunistic, but suing President Donald Trump over tariffs was smart, bold and much needed.

Sure, it was political. Newsom adroitly leaped ahead of other potential 2028 presidential contenders by taking aim through the court system at Trump’s allegedly illegal actions on tariffs.

Someone needed to seek a judicial ruling on whether the president can raise tariffs himself without congressional approval.

Republican congressional leaders — Republican politicians generally — are too intimidated by their president to sneeze without his blessing. They’re meekly ceding their co-equal legislative power to the president. And that’s worrisome for democracy.

It’s about self-preservation. Republican members of Congress who must survive GOP primaries to win reelection fear getting on the bad side of the vengeful president and being “primaried.”

“Where the hell is Congress? Where the hell is Speaker [Mike] Johnson? Do your job!” Newsom proclaimed while announcing his lawsuit last week at an almond orchard near Ceres in the agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley.

“They’re sitting there passively [as Trump] wrecks the economy of the United States.”

Actually, Newsom seemed to be crashing Attorney General Rob Bonta’s party.

Newsom and Bonta jointly filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. But Bonta — often working with other states’ Democratic attorneys general — already had filed 14 lawsuits challenging Trump policies. Bonta’s staff had spent significant time drafting the tariff suit before Newsom publicly surfaced as a plaintiff.

“The president is acting as if he’s above the law. He isn’t,” Bonta said before introducing Newsom at the almond farm. “Congress has the duty to set taxes, duties and, yes, tariffs.”

For Newsom and California, challenging Trump in court is a bit risky. The president has threatened to retaliate against California by withholding federal funds if state policies conflict with his. That includes money to help rebuild fire-ravaged sections of Los Angeles.

That’s not just an idle threat, as Trump has shown in pulling back federal funds promised for universities and strong-arming law firms that have opposed him in court cases.

But as most of us learned as kids, you’ve got to stand up to a bully. And that’s what Newsom did.

“No doubt, Trump isn’t going to give California anything anyway,” says Democratic political consultant David Townsend. “This is a good political move by Newsom to position himself as anti-Trump on a solid policy issue.

“All Democratic voters are looking for a strong anti-Trump leader.”

OK, so Newsom is reading the tea leaves and realizes that lots of people are clamoring for a crusader to carry the fight against Trump’s policies.

That was demonstrated on the night before Newsom’s announcement when Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — two East Coast democratic socialists — attracted nearly 30,000 people at an anti-Trump rally in a Republican congressional district near Sacramento.

An essential ingredient of democracy is elected officials following the citizens’ will. And that’s clearly what Newsom is now trying to do on tariffs.

“I can’t imagine anything more unifying” for California than challenging Trump on tariffs, Newsom said. “We were hoping we didn’t need to go down this path. But we [are] prepared to go down this path.”

Trump’s “unlawful tariffs are wreaking chaos on California families, businesses and our economy — driving up prices and threatening jobs,” Newsom said in a prepared statement.

The lawsuit represents a shift in Newsom’s strategy toward Trump. Previously, he has been practically mute, seemingly trying to play nice to avoid Trump’s wrath that could cost California federal money for disaster relief, higher education and Medi-Cal healthcare.

Contrast that soft-tongue tactic with another Newsom announcement last week unveiling a lawsuit challenging Trump cuts to the AmeriCorps service program in California.

“We’ve gone from the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society to a federal government that gives the middle finger to volunteers serving their fellow Americans,” Newson declared in a prepared statement.

Middle finger? Not exactly traditional gubernatorial lingo. But no bureaucratic bull, either.

Governors wouldn’t ordinarily file a court case contesting a president’s foreign policy. But this is not like suing Trump for cozying up to Russian President Vladmir Putin, puncturing our European alliances or bizarrely threatening to seize Greenland. On tariffs, California has judicial “standing” as an aggrieved victim.

“No state is poised to lose more than the state of California,” Newsom said.

“We talk about stupidity,” Newsom continued. “This [tariff action] is the poster child for that.”

Newsom noted that California’s gross domestic product was $3.9 trillion in 2023, which was 50% bigger than that of the next-largest state, Texas. If this were a country, it would be the fifth-largest economy in the world.

We’re the nation’s leading agriculture producer and there are more than 36,000 manufacturing firms employing 1.1 million people.

China, Mexico and Canada — special tariff targets for Trump — supply more than 40% of California’s foreign imports. They’re also the top three export countries. In all, California imported $491 billion in products last year and exported $183 billion worth.

What the tariffs add up to is an expected economic downturn in California that will cost the state government tax revenue and drive the budget deeper into red ink. That will stem from collapsing businesses that rely on foreign imports or exports — exacerbated by reduced consumer spending as prices rise on everything from food to cars.

Although Newsom and Bonta insist that Trump can’t impose tariffs without congressional consent, this isn’t a clear-cut case. The Trump-friendly Supreme Court undoubtedly will eventually decide.

Newsom did the right thing by being the first governor to seek a court answer.