CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2025, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“CAN NEWSOM’S TARIFF RESISTANCE REBOOT HIS CAMPAIGN?”
At this
peculiar lame duck period in the political career of Gov. Gavin Newsom, almost
anything he does – even if it’s merely pursuing a routine duty of his current
office – will be evaluated in terms of his obvious yet still unstated desire to
become president.
But from the
moment last summer when former President Biden exited last year’s race until
this month, there was only one word to accurately describe Newsom’s putative
campaign – supine.
Prior to
Biden’s exit, Newsom was probably America’s second most prominent Democrat, the
leading Biden surrogate and one who traveled the country trying to impress
other national Democrats with both himself and Biden.
But once Biden
handed off the Democratic nomination to Newsom’s longtime friend, fellow Willie
Brown protégé and political stablemate Kamala Harris, the California governor
seemed to disappear into a long sulk. He played virtually no part in the fall
campaign, and for months did not lead any form of resistance to the sometimes
dictatorial presidency of Republican Donald Trump, who cannot run for president
a third time in 2028 but nevertheless suggests there may be ways for him to get
another term.
Rather than
oppose Trump, Newsom blasted his own party’s “toxic” attitudes – not
necessarily inaccurate as national Democrats until lately had mostly sat by and
watched Trump’s many moves.
Now Newsom may
have a mechanism to re-launch himself into the national picture for 2028 while
becoming possibly the prime Democratic spokesman for the remaining three
years-plus of Trump’s current term.
It came via the
mid-April announcement of a California lawsuit challenging the legality of
Trump’s on-again, off-again, partially on-again tariffs, which could
potentially cost California farmers, merchants and manufacturers tens of
billions of dollars in sales.
Loss of that
much income and the state taxes it produces would heavily impact future state
budgets, cutting into virtually all programs from Medi-Cal to policing and fire
protection, regardless of budgetary gimmicks.
Trump’s tariff
actions, taken under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977,
set 10 percent baseline import taxes on virtually anything originating abroad,
with higher levies on goods from China, Canada and Mexico. There are also
specifically higher taxes on certain products like autos and aluminum.
Newsom’s
lawsuit – the first of the 15 legal actions the state has taken against the new
Trump administration that names him as lead individual plaintiff – claims the
law Trump cites does not give him unilateral power to set up tariffs or take
them down. That power, many legal scholars believe, belongs to Congress, which
has shown even less fight than Newsom’s early campaign.
“No state is
poised to lose more than California,” Newsom said. That’s not counting stock
market losses resulting from Trump’s moves. “That’s why we are asserting
ourselves..,” he added.
Newsom’s action
made California the first state to formally challenge Trump’s tariffs, although
other states have joined in on most other California lawsuits against Trump
this year.
When Trump
lawyers quickly petitioned to have the tariff case moved from California to an
East Coast courtroom, Newsom immediately riposted “You scared?”
“We’re the
first mover,” Newsom said. “That’s what California does.”
Official
descriptions of the law Trump uses as his authority note that no other
president has tried to claim it gives them such power. But Trump seems to
operate on the theory that powers seized and not firmly resisted somehow become
legitimized.
If Newsom’s
lawsuit wins, it would very likely force a congressional vote to either adopt
and legalize Trump’s tariffs or dump them. Either way, Newsom aims to put every
member of Congress on the record about tariffs, rather than letting politicians
of both parties moan about how powerless they’ve been.
Forcing such a
vote would give Newsom a claim on being politically savvy and powerful enough
to force changes in Washington, D.C. even as a lame duck.
It’s precisely
the kind of political ammunition Newsom has sought as he blasted party mates
while conducting dialogs with Trump supporters on his own podcasts.
His clear hope
is that this and subsequent moves to resist Trump will give him the staying
power to remain prominent through nearly two years of political exile between
the end of his term in early 2027 and the 2028 election.
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Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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