Why this Trump interview scares small businesses

So this clip right here that I'm going to play is an interview that Trump did this morning. And if you own a small business, it's pretty freaking scary. So I'll tell you why. But first, let me play the clip right here and then let's talk about it. Tariff relief for small business.

Why do you always mention that? You know, you pick up a couple of little businesses. What about the car business? They're going to make a fortune because of the tariffs. Do you know that the union, the head of the union, who is no fan of mine, Fein, Sean Fain, I guess his name is, right? He didn't endorse me. The Teamsters did. A lot of people did. A lot of unions did. But he didn't. He couldn't stand me. Now he's saying, wow, what Trump's done for the automobile, I can't believe it. I assume he's gonna probably now say the next thing he can say is, I endorse this guy. He's the greatest I've ever seen. He can't believe it's happened. He said, we've been waiting 40 years for somebody to do what Trump is doing. So why don't you mention the big car industry instead of mentioning somebody that's doing strollers?

Well, I'm just asking you about small businesses. Are there any discussions about giving any relief to small businesses?

They're not going to need it.

Okay. Are these—

they're going to make so much money.

So if you look at what's happened over the past kind of decade or so, the kind of part and parcel that small business plays in terms of the employment economy, like the impact of that is growing. Used to be closer to 60%. We're getting ready to have less than half of the jobs in this country be people that are employed by small businesses. And, you know, there's definitions from the government, but in general, people say a small business is a company with less than 500 employees. And to put that in perspective, it's kind of a rough definition because if you look at your average Chick-fil-A, you know, location that employs like 200 people. So it all kind of depends. But anyway, you see the idea. Small business has been on the decline for the past decade. That is because the policies have gotten worse for small business. It's just harder to run a business when you're small, when the government and folks are putting a lot more regulation on you. And similarly, at the high end, the government has not been doing things that have historically protected small business, which means preventing big businesses from using extraordinary power. And you can see that as recently as, well, all the kind of consolidation that has happened in the airplane industry, right? Like, we have one manufacturer of airplanes in the United States now. It's crazy that the government let that happen. Lots of other consolidations that have happened. You know, we're down to 3 major airlines plus Southwest. You look at what's happened in the media and the news and in tech, like, consolidation has happened. And that's because the government has been, frankly, asleep at the wheel. The people that are getting totally pummeled by these tariffs are not the big businesses. Microsoft does not care. Amazon is gonna make money no matter what, 'cause they'll keep selling things that we have to own to buy. Walmart, the same way, right? There's no chance that we can go to somebody else when these big businesses are out there. But small businesses, they're the ones that are getting pummeled by these tariffs. And what happened in 2016 and the first Trump administration was when small businesses went to the White House, when there were new tariffs from China, on China and stuff like that, we were able to get exemptions on a number of those things. But this time around, the White House isn't offering any sort of exemptions for small businesses and industries, except for a few. They've done it for big businesses. And you look at the exemptions that have come through for tech, which benefits companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, all these people that are importing tech and hardware, like they're getting an exemption. You and me, not so much. Think about what Trump said in this particular interview. He straight up said like, I don't care about small business. I genuinely do not care. I want big automakers. I want all these big tech companies Those are the ones I care about thriving. I want union presidents to care about me. You, person that has a 10 or 15 or 20 person business that's dependent upon a pretty shaky supply chain. Well, that's not a priority for this administration. I am totally pro reshaping American trade and reshape the American economy, but it has to be done in a way that doesn't totally explode what is the fundamental backbone of our economy and hires 50% of our employees in this country, which are small businesses. And the Trump presidency has been very hard for people to understand. 'Cause normally politicians come up and they don't tell us the truth. They don't tell us what they're gonna do. They do things in dark smoky rooms and secrets happen. And then later on, you know, deals get done and then, you know, policies and stuff get rolled out. The Trump administration is very different. They've come out every single time and said, "We're gonna put crazy tariffs on." And you know what they did? They went and put crazy tariffs on. And this time he's come out and he said, "I don't really care about small business." And to me, as somebody involved in small business who makes content for small business owners, That's freaking scary. So I've talked a lot in other videos about how I think entrepreneurs should approach the news. By and large, the news is something you could generally ignore, but the stuff that you do need to know is going to find its way into your inbox or told to you by your friends or that sort of thing. So this feels like one of those things that if you're a small business person, you should pay attention to it because what the president's saying is headwinds are coming. There's not going to be a lot of economic relief. Or policy relief, or even intentions from this administration to really help the small business backbone of the economy. One of those businesses who says, "Oh, well, these tariffs will be temporary. It'll all get reconciled. It'll come back down and get fixed relatively quickly and we'll be okay." I would take the over on that. Basically, they're telling you what they're gonna do. They're telling you what their administration's position's gonna be. It cares about big business. It doesn't care about little business. And things are gonna be tough. I would build that into your plans. That's the best I could tell you. And hope that you have the spare capacity, surplus, and wherewithal to survive it until hopefully somebody can come back in and start, well, actually caring what happens to small business. 'Cause you know, it's just that important to so many people in this country. Maybe the most political video like I've ever done. For 10+ years, I refused to talk anything about politics on social media and something got me talking about it. You wanna know what that thing is? Tariffs on small businesses. That's what's got me fired up about it. 'Cause I have friends that are gonna go out of business 'cause of this stupidity. So good intentions, badly implemented, and hopefully some sanity will come at some point soon. But man, the one thing you say about the Trump presidency, when they tell you what they're gonna do, they tend to do it. And they're telling us right now, which if you're a small business person, it's pretty freaking scary. And if you're interested in hearing more from me, I send an email on a weekly basis. Here's a link to it. It's free. I talk about the issues that are important to small business owners and specifically people that want to eventually be involved in more than one business. Subscribe here. All right. Let me know what you think below. Tell me in the comments. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this one because, you know, politics. All right. Catch you next time.