When Donald Trump announced his grandiose plan for trade tariffs on April 2, 2025 some people cringed, others cheered, and a few called their lawyers.
One of those was Rick Woldenberg, the CEO of a family-owned company in Vernon Hills, Illinois a suburb of Chicago. His firm, Learning Resources, outsources the majority of the manufacturing of its products made of plastic to Chinese firms. My wife, Risa, is an educational therapist and we have some of their products in her home office.
Woldenberg’s company was founded in 1984, but predecessor companies started by family members go back 100 years.
Learning Resources is not an enormous publicly held company. Huge Chicago companies like McDonalds or AbbVie would never challenge the Trump administration because the publicity might hurt their stock prices and cost the CEOs their jobs.
But Rick Woldenberg could feel the pain of the tariffs from day one. He was an owner, a founder, with longtime customers and connections. He was also selling to school districts which had already placed orders for the year.
Unlike most of us who would have complained to our wives and associates and then grumbled, Rick Woldenberg, small business founder, decided to sue.
Fortunately, in America when we believe the federal or state or local government has overstepped the law, we can go to court and try to reverse the course of action.
In a challenge like this, there are law firms and donors who will join a guy like Woldenberg so he is not fighting an expensive uphill battle, possibly headed to the Supreme Court, by himself. In this case, Learning Resources and Woldenberg were represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).
Another firm, Liberty Justice Center, filed a separate but related lawsuit on behalf of a New York wine importer, V.O.S. Selections.
So, two nonprofit public-interest law firms representing small privately-held firms challenged executive overreach and ultimately won a 6-3 decision last week.
President Donald Trump fervently believes tariffs, no matter how he justifies them, are the right policy for the country.
After showing his disdain for the Court and the decision with particular anger aimed at Justices Gorsuch and Coney Barrett who he appointed, Trump instituted a blanket 15% tariff which confuses the world.
That is one of the big problems with Trump’s tariff approach—confusion. And when businesses do not know what their costs will be from one day to another they tend to sit tight.
In our machinery business we felt this inaction acutely.
It appeared this year that companies and countries had generally adjusted to Trump’s tariffs and were going to take a more aggressive stance toward action in 2026.
But now things are chaotic again. Stocks fell sharply on Monday. The Chinese must be laughing at America’s back and forthing. The Europeans are already a mess with China eating their lunch on electric cars.
In the United States, in our little corner of industry, we see 6061 aluminum barstock up almost 50% in price since “Liberation Day.”
But we still have folks like Rick Woldenberg of Learning Resources in America. Tariffs will be challenged again. Congress may wake up. The midterm elections may force Donald Trump to pivot.
Hang in there folks. Tariffs are temporary. Egg prices have fallen.
Unfortunately, ego has not.
Question: How has the rise of metal prices affected your business?
This article was originally posted on https://todaysmachiningworld.c...