The White House Is Celebrating Small Businesses—While Quietly Squeezing Them
Last week, the White House wrapped up National Small Business Week with patriotic flair and a bold proclamation: small businesses are thriving, and new trade policies are giving them the protection they’ve long deserved.
But scratch beneath the surface of that narrative, and a very different story emerges—one that’s less about empowerment and more about pressure.
“The administration says it’s unleashing opportunity for small businesses,” says George Kailas, CEO of Prospero.AI, “but tariffs do the opposite. They’re busy painting a picture of financial bloom, but anyone running a business right now knows the truth: Tariffs don’t protect small businesses—they punish them.”
And he’s not wrong. The Biden-to-Trump-era trade policies have continued a trend of imposing “targeted” tariffs on goods coming from nations accused of unfair trade practices. The goal, according to the latest proclamation from President Trump, is to “strengthen local supply chains” and “protect American businesses from being undercut by cheap foreign products.”
On paper, it sounds like a victory for Main Street. But in practice, tariffs rarely hurt the foreign manufacturers they target. Instead, the cost hikes trickle down to small business owners who rely on those imported parts and products to stock their shelves, build their products, and stay competitive. The burden doesn’t land on the CEOs of multinational firms—it lands on the shop floors of local retailers, independent manufacturers, and small-town service providers.
A Backdoor Tax on Entrepreneurship
For all the fanfare around “Made in America,” many small businesses still depend on global supply chains—whether for raw materials, packaging, or wholesale goods. When those goods get hit with tariffs, costs rise immediately, often without any viable domestic alternative.
Kailas puts it plainly: “Tariffs quietly inflate the cost of goods, disrupt supply chains, and force small business owners to make impossible choices.”
Some businesses eat the cost, cutting into already razor-thin margins. Others pass it along to customers and risk losing sales. But in either scenario, the supposed “protection” ends up acting more like a tax.
The Trump administration’s recent proclamation argued that foreign trade systems are “flooding our markets with cheap goods while shutting out quality American products.” The logic: raise tariffs to level the playing field. The problem? That assumes small businesses are the producers, not the consumers, of those goods.
In reality, a significant percentage of America’s 33 million small businesses aren’t building semiconductors or refining steel. They’re importing coffee beans, running craft breweries, selling electronics, operating bike shops, or offering niche services that rely on parts sourced from abroad.
Economic Patriotism or Political Spin?
The proclamation touts initiatives like cutting $100 billion in regulations and boosting domestic manufacturing. But experts caution that these efforts—while potentially helpful—don’t offset the damage from higher import costs and increased trade volatility.
“You can’t strengthen the backbone of the economy by weighing it down,” Kailas says. “If we’re serious about helping small businesses grow, we need policies rooted in reality—not press release spin.”
Indeed, many small business owners say what they need most isn’t another public celebration, but real structural support: better access to affordable capital, faster permitting processes, healthcare reform, and predictable regulatory environments. Tariffs, especially when deployed as political tools, create the opposite—uncertainty, disruption, and fear of retaliation.
The Road Ahead
As the U.S. gears up for another contentious election cycle, small businesses will continue to be political pawns—hailed in speeches, name-checked in policy rollouts, but often overlooked when the actual impacts are tallied.
The irony isn’t lost on those living it.
“We’re told to be proud, that we’re the backbone of the American economy,” one small business owner in Pennsylvania told VOX. “But then we’re stuck paying 20% more for the parts we need, while trying to explain to our customers why everything suddenly costs more.”
And that’s the crux of it. While politicians rally behind small businesses in front of cameras, many of their policies quietly make running one harder behind the scenes.
If the administration really wants to help entrepreneurs thrive, Kailas says the approach has to change: “Stop using small business as a political talking point. Start listening to what we actually need.”
Until then, “National Small Business Week” may feel more like a photo op than a promise.
