Small businesses drive the American economy, create millions of jobs, and are responsible for generating groundbreaking, disruptive innovations that transform entire sectors and industries. Yet the Trump administration—abetted by a complicit Congress—has committed the nation’s businesses to a trade war and myriad additional economic policy failures that will produce zero winners but millions of losers in every state in the nation.
One need only scan the rows of multibillionaires seated up front at the most recent presidential inauguration to discern the sorts, and sizes, of companies the Trump administration has set out to favor most via inconsistent and chaotic tariffs that squeeze small businesses at every turn and stall our economy’s most valuable engine. The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has taken a particularly chaotic approach to eliminating public services that small businesses need most.
But small businesses are not only being forced to navigate the administration’s misguided economic agenda. Unlawful, authoritarian immigration policies, coupled with proposed cuts to programs for basic needs, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), introduce additional uncertainties that are burdening consumers and producers alike.
Please join the Center for American Progress, in partnership with Small Business Majority, for a discussion with entrepreneurs and advocates from across the country to learn more about how America’s small businesses are attempting to navigate the Trump administration’s tariffs, trade wars, and other harmful economic choices.