Small businesses are the United States’ economic engine, generating more than half of the country’s new jobs in the past 5 years. But President Donald Trump’s tariffs are about to slam them with a devastating tax increase—one that big corporations can more easily dodge thanks to armies of lawyers and compliance officers.
The Chamber of Commerce estimates that there are about 236,000 small business importers—companies with fewer than 500 employees—that collectively brought in more than $868 billion worth of goods from abroad in 2023. It also calculated that Trump’s tariffs, which took effect Aug. 7, will cost those companies $202 billion annually.
That’s an average hit of $856,000 per firm, per year.
President Donald Trump announcing his first round of tariffs on April 2.
For many of these businesses, the financial pain is only part of the story. New customs red tape, while manageable for multinational corporations with dedicated teams, is a bureaucratic nightmare for small operators. So the Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation—are sounding the alarm.
But here’s the kicker: The Chamber of Commerce poured money into the GOP, and the NRF—while less active—also gave mostly to Republicans, too.
It would be nice if these organizations would finally learn that the GOP isn’t the “pro-business” party after all. And consumers? They’ll be picking up more and more of the tab.
In April, Trump breezily claimed that China would “probably eat those tariffs.” But Goldman Sachs crunched the numbers and found that foreign exporters only absorb about 14% of tariff costs, while U.S. companies shoulder 64% and consumers pay the remaining 22%. It also warned that, by October, companies will hit their breaking point and pass two-thirds of the costs directly to consumers.
But, of course, Trump’s response to this inconvenient math has been to attack the messenger.
“David Solomon and Goldman Sachs refuse to give credit where credit is due,” he wrote on Truth Social. “They made a bad prediction a long time ago on both the Market repercussion and the Tariffs themselves, and they were wrong, just like they are wrong about so much else. I think that David should go out and get himself a new Economist or, maybe, he ought to just focus on being a DJ, and not bother running a major Financial Institution.”
The reality is that Trump’s tariffs aren’t about protecting U.S. jobs or punishing China; they’re just a massive, regressive tax that will bleed small businesses dry and send prices soaring for the rest of us.
And thanks to Trump’s latest round of tariffs, even DJ equipment is getting hammered, so that’s no longer the viable alternate gig Trump thinks it is.
