Comment: State of union for small business, consumers? Dismal.
By Matthew A. Winkler / Bloomberg Opinion Donald Trump’s State of the Union is unlike any of the President’s preceding him because America isn’t working the way it used to.
Small businesses, which have fewer than 500 employees and account for almost half of private sector payrolls, are suffering record bankruptcies and “still waiting for noticeable economic growth” even as U.S. gross domestic product continues to climb, the Republican-leaning National Federation of Independent Business reported last month.
The agricultural economy is sliding, with barely half of all farms forecasted to be profitable after Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and war on immigrants, who account for almost 75% of all crop labor. (After the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Trump illegally imposed tariffs on U.S. trading partners under the guise that America’s trade deficit amounts to a national emergency, he announced a global 15% baseline tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows the president to impose such duties for 150 days without congressional approval.)
Optimism about the economy is no different than in early 2020, when the global pandemic was raging and everyone was worried about a depression, according to the latest survey of the nation’s chief financial officers by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
https://www.heraldnet.com/2026/02/26/comment-state-of-union-for-small-business-consumers-dismal/