Latest / NO FILTER / _Harder than the pandemic__ Business owner suing Trump admin over tariff turmoil(MP3_160K)

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_Harder than the pandemic__ Business owner suing Trump admin over tariff turmoil(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we are joined now by one of the plaintiffs
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: suing over Trump's tariffs. Rick Woldenberg is the CEO of
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: family owned toy company Learning Resources. Rick, thanks so much
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: for joining us. I know this is stressful for you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: as you're trying to navigate all the uncertainty. The courts
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: have now acknowledged that Trump's tariffs would cause your company
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: quote significant and unrecoverable losses. What kind of losses? What
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: does it look like for you?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously we're doing everything we can to stem the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: tide of those losses. We have to pay the tariffs
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: as we bring product in, but it's the frictional costs
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: that are really killing us. You know, we have the
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: costs of moving product from one country to another, retesting
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: services related to that, lost business, business opportunities that went away,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: orders that were canceled. There's a very long list of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the hits we're taking, and they're not recoverable because you
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: can't seek damages from the US government.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: You have about five hundred employe right, Have you had
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to lay off anybody because of Trump's policies.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: No, we're absolutely drawing the line at that.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: We're we've defined this as a community problem at our company,
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  Speaker 2: and we're circling the wagons around our team.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Their families are counting on their livelihood.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: You say sixty percent of your product comes from China
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: and that you're trying to pivot manufacturing elsewhere, even move
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: production to America. Can you just help us understand what
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: kind of undertaking that is.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Well, we have about thirty percent of our office employees
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: working full time or part time on tariffs, and that's
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: a change up from about zero a month ago. That's
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: a massive shift in labor, almost unthinkable. No one carries
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the kind of spare capacity. And because the rules change
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: every two days, like we're stuck in some sort of telenovella,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: you don't really know what to do make We are
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: constantly making decisions with guesses because we don't know what
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the rules are and they keep changing.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: It sounds so frustrating. Small businesses have raised a lot
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of alarm about the impact of these tariffs already, but
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the White House has in budge. They're saying zero exceptions,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: zero carve outs for small businesses. On top of it,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: do you have the White House telling companies to eat
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the cost of tariffs rather than raise prices. How does
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: that hit you?
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  Speaker 2: It feels like gaslighting. The reality is that this tariff
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: scheme is a six hundred billion dollar a year tax increase.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Secretary best And brags about six hundred million dollars six
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: hundred billion in revenue. It's a tax increase. It's more
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: than our earnings every year. So we can't absorb it.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: It's not mathematically possible. It has to be passed on.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So they've converted me over into a tax collector. When
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: they say there's other ways to do this, the one
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: way they never talk about is to do it in
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the sunshine. Have a vote in Congress. You want to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: raise our taxes by six.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Hundred billion, put your name next it. Vote in the sunshine.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Your company has been in business for about forty years.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: You are not just trying to find your footing, and
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: yet you describe the challenges that you're facing, the complete
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: whiplash that you've endured. Has it ever felt this dire
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: for you in your company in these four decades of
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: being around.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't want to come on TV and
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: have a pity party. We're doing everything that we can
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: to preserve our business and we will succeed. Okay, So
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: it's rough times. We call this pandemic two point zero. Personally,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I think this is harder than the pandemic. We survived
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the pandemic and grew after the pandemic, so we were fined.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: There and we will traverse this as well.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: But this is our own government doing this to us,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: which is shocking. It's absolutely shocking. And the problem is simple.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: There's a taxing. This is an emperor has no close thing.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: This is a tax increase. Who should be surprised at
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: what's happening to small businesses? That's the problem.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Do you think this administration cares about whether your company survives?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think they care. They want they want
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: more car plans. And what we do, which is to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: help kids learn, is for some reason that I can't
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: put my finger on, considered like not worthy. We have
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: five hundred employees, we'd create great jobs. We spend a
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: lot of money on Capex and technology.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I don't know what's wrong with that. You just ran
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: b roll of our warehouse.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: It's a sophisticated place, but we're not making cars.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: I apologize for that.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Rick Woldenberg. You're making toys, toys for kids. That matters too.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for spending time with us and
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: sharing the insight into your business, your dilemma here, and
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the impact of these tariffs.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Good luck, Thank you, thank you very much.