CNN host Jake Tapper and investor Ross Gerber on CNN on September 3, 2025

President Donald Trump's style of bypassing traditional checks and balances to unilaterally manage the economy is alarming one prominent investor.

During a Wednesday interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, Ross Gerber — who is the CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management — expressed hope that the federal judiciary would rule Trump's tariffs illegal. He opined that the previous ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which struck down the tariffs Trump imposed by claiming a state of emergency, would be a "much bigger blow to Trump than the economy."

"I think it's actually good for the economy," Gerber said of the potential for the Supreme Court to uphold the appellate court's ruling. "This idea that it's somehow bad for the economy to take away this huge tax on American consumers is actually false."

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"The refunds would all go back to U.S. companies that are paying this. So I don't see how that's a negative, when the tariffs are the problem," he continued. "I think really where the negative is, is it's a huge blow to Trump's belief system that executive orders are the way to put his policies in place versus doing it the correct way — the way our Constitution states — that Congress has the right to make these tariffs and laws."

Gerber went on to scoff that the various tariff exceptions Trump put in place for various countries were due to "national security issues," and that the president was simply hunting for a pretext to rule by executive fiat. And he added that Trump's firing of former Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Erika McEntarfer was further evidence that the president "fundamentally doesn't understand the separation of powers of the United States."

"I think the idea that somebody might lose their job because of a bad number is a very, very poor way to manage the government," Gerber said. "Once again, these are not political people. These are statisticians that work for our government and they don't care who's president. You know, when you work at the State Department or you work in a lot of these places, you work for the U.S. government, and it's not about politics."

Watch Gerber's segment below, or by clicking this link.

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