California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday held a tariff-focused roundtable in downtown Los Angeles in an effort to gauge how the business community is dealing with the tariffs.
"Uncertainty is what's killing us," said Jason Hodge, a Port Hueneme commissioner. "More than anything else, it's the uncertainty."
That frustration was a common theme at the event, with nearly two dozen business leaders describing lost revenues in companies dependent on the ports, like local truck drivers.
"The trucking community continues to see companies go out of business," said Robert Loya of T.G.S. Logistics. "Drivers who used to drive and get going to the port at least three, four, five times a week are now down to one day a week, two days a week."
Bonta has been a loud critic of Trump's tariffs, calling them scattershot and reckless. As attorney general, he has filed a federal lawsuit arguing the president doesn't have the authority to issue tariffs.
Bonta says those tariffs and the threats of even more of them has already cost California 64,000 jobs and $24 billion.
"For the federal government to willy nilly impose these tariffs against every single trading partner, against our biggest trading partners... is disappointing, but unfortunately, it's kind of what we expect," Bonta said.
Trump has set a deadline of Aug. 1 for the more than 200 trading partners to reach agreements with the U.S.
"It's about time the United States of America started collecting money from countries that were ripping us off," Trump said.
Trump had promised 90 tariff deals in 90 days, but so far, his administration has announced just one deal with Vietnam, and the framework of a deal with the United Kingdom.