There May Be a Hefty Price for Hurting Small Businesses
Farmers and small-enterprise owners strongly backed Trump. But tariffs are creating headwinds that are hard to overcome.
Not in a position to eat the cost of tariffs.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty ImagesThe economic policies passed in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s term may yet bring a Golden Age, but so far they haven’t for small farms and businesses. According to an estimate by the right-leaning US Chamber of Commerce, Trump’s levies mean that small businesses will have to pay an extra $202 billion a year on tariffs, which works out to about $856,000 per company on average.
Small-business optimism soared on Trump’s victory and plunged when he announced tariffs; the right-leaning NFIB Small Business Optimism Index has recovered somewhat since “Liberation Day” but has yet to reach the heights of Trump’s first term in office, and response rates to the survey have fallen, suggesting some business owners may be too busy struggling to remain solvent to complete surveys. The Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer index has declined for two months in a row.