The Florida Entrepreneur Suing Over Tariffs Is Right
Emily Ley’s stationery business, Simplified, could be destroyed by Trump’s levies on Chinese imports. A conservative legal group is backing her claim.
The cost of doing business just went up.
Photographer: Emily Ley/Simplified via InstagramWhen Emily Ley started her stationery business 17 years ago in Florida, she felt like it was the embodiment of the American dream. Today, she’s the unlikely face of opposition to a trade war against China instigated by the American president. Those tariffs threaten to extinguish Ley’s business and the operations of millions of companies like hers.
“It wasn’t on my Bingo card this year to sue the president,” said Ley, the CEO and founder of Simplified, a Pensacola-based stationery company. That changed after a social media post went viral in which she warned of the devastation President Donald Trump’s tariffs would have on small businesses.