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CEO who filed suit against Trump's tariffs says he feels vindicated after Supreme Court's ruling · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Let's go live now. To Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources,
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  Speaker 1: who made headlines last year when he took the White
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  Speaker 1: House to court challenging Trump's sweeping global tariffs. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: so much for joining us on twenty four to seven today,
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  Speaker 1: because your lawsuit is what led up to all of this.
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  Speaker 1: What is your response to discrepromme Court's ruling.
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  Speaker 2: We're excited, We're feeling vindicated. We felt that the tax
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  Speaker 2: was an unlawful tax, and we're excited to see the
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  Speaker 2: Supreme Court take a very strong stance in favor of
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  Speaker 2: the equal application of law to all of us.
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  Speaker 1: I know you're excited. This ruling just came down today,
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  Speaker 1: not too long ago. I assume that you have a
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  Speaker 1: lot of questions about what comes next for you and
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  Speaker 1: what comes next for your business.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we're going to take this one step at a time,
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  Speaker 2: so big victory. Now we need to pursue getting our
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  Speaker 2: money back. I'm not going to speculate on what may
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  Speaker 2: happen next from policies endpoint. We're anxious to run our
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  Speaker 2: business and help kids as much as we can.
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  Speaker 1: Talk to me about the impact of tariffs on your business.
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  Speaker 1: Why did you feel the need to take this step
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  Speaker 1: to take this case to the Supreme Court.
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  Speaker 2: Well on a run rate basis, the tariffs that were
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  Speaker 2: announced in the week of Liberation Day would have completely
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  Speaker 2: destroyed our business. Our business is a fourth generation family business.
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  Speaker 2: We've had a family business for over one hundred years.
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  Speaker 2: We're also a mission driven business, so in those circumstances
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  Speaker 2: you feel a high sense of responsibility and duty. We
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  Speaker 2: also have over five hundred employees in full time equivalents.
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  Speaker 2: Their families count on us for their livelihood, so it
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  Speaker 2: was pretty easy. We needed to stand up for all
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  Speaker 2: those things that matter so much to us.
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  Speaker 1: Rick, tell me more about your business. What is it
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  Speaker 1: that you do.
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  Speaker 2: You make cans on learning materials for schools and educational
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  Speaker 2: toys for home. We sell in over one hundred countries
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  Speaker 2: and so we market our products for children eighteen months
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  Speaker 2: to say, eighth grade on basic subjects, maths, science, reading, language,
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  Speaker 2: stem coding, social emotional learning. That's what we focus on.
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  Speaker 2: And so we feel as though in the absence of
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  Speaker 2: our country company, there might be a tear in the
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  Speaker 2: fabric of the universe, and so you know, we need
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  Speaker 2: to defend that.
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  Speaker 1: And so when these tariffs went into place, in what
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  Speaker 1: way was your business affected? To talk about just the
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  Speaker 1: things that you were bringing into the country in order
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  Speaker 1: to whether to sell or to make things for your business,
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  Speaker 1: how much or just how high do those prices go.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we certainly knew that mister Trump intended to do this,
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  Speaker 2: and we were trying to adjust our business, but no
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  Speaker 2: one had the imagination to see that he would do
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  Speaker 2: what he did. He promised on the stump that he
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  Speaker 2: might goes high sixty percent, and then he went two
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  Speaker 2: and a half times that in the week of Liberation Day.
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  Speaker 2: So it was kind of game over, and overnight we
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  Speaker 2: had to dramatically increase our efforts to shift from one
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  Speaker 2: country to another. I've kind of described it as being
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  Speaker 2: akin to being like a refugee. You're just going to
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  Speaker 2: higher ground and hoping that that will be better. So
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  Speaker 2: we made the best guesses we could, and sometimes in
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  Speaker 2: the course of moving things changed because the rules changed
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  Speaker 2: about every forty eight hours for a year. So it's
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  Speaker 2: very very disruptive. Costs a lot of money, made us
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  Speaker 2: change our growth plans. Can we cut spending dramatically to
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  Speaker 2: survive it? And so we did. We were successful. We
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  Speaker 2: finished the year in a healthy condition, but it's not
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  Speaker 2: exactly the same business that it would have been but
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  Speaker 2: for this enormous and unlawful tax.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Rick, I know you said you don't want to
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  Speaker 1: speculate about policy, but what are you hoping for right now?
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  Speaker 2: I think that the court case, the decision offers everyone
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  Speaker 2: involved to take a breath and to think about, like,
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  Speaker 2: what's the right priorities from the standpoint of the national interest.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think you can lump an educational toy company
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  Speaker 2: in with an auto manufacturer or chip fab If the
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  Speaker 2: priorities are making chips in the United States, maybe you
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  Speaker 2: should have rules about chip companies and not sweep us
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  Speaker 2: in with them. You know, I've told the folks that
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  Speaker 2: work at our company, as far as I'm concerned, they're
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  Speaker 2: not a rounding error here, and I refuse to let
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  Speaker 2: our company and the people that work at our company
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  Speaker 2: be denigrated that way. We're important. What we do is important,
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  Speaker 2: and they need to take into account that there are
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  Speaker 2: a lot of businesses out there that are smaller than
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  Speaker 2: you know, the Fortune five hundred that matter. We manage
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  Speaker 2: our communities, and we manage our customers, and in this case,
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  Speaker 2: we matter to schools, educate our children, so have more
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  Speaker 2: tailored rules. And if the government needs more revenue, mister
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  Speaker 2: James Madison has left rules in place that govern how
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  Speaker 2: that revenants to be raised. Follow those rules and I'll
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  Speaker 2: have no recourse against them. They raise their taxes, say
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  Speaker 2: lower taxes, but it has to be done through Congress.
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  Speaker 1: Okay. Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for your time. We really do appreciate you giving
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  Speaker 1: us a sense of what you went through because it's
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  Speaker 1: so important to hear your voice and your story. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: Thank you,