‘Chaotic’ tariff regime and trade war are leaving small businesses in their wake

Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy, homegrown companies that would seem to be exactly what President Donald Trump aims to protect as part of his “America First” trade agenda. But for many small business owners, the years of hard work and the optimistic outlooks have unraveled seemingly overnight.

Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy, homegrown companies that would seem to be exactly what President Donald Trump aims to protect as part of his “America First” trade agenda. But for many small business owners, the years of hard work and the optimistic outlooks have unraveled seemingly overnight. The first week of April marked the culmination of two years’ work for Katharine Burke: The very first line of her self-care Purryfuls products went into production. However, the first week of April also brought massive tariffs for imported goods from China, where Burke’s products are made. Melanie Abrantes, now 11 years in at running her eponymous handcrafted product design company, has found herself in need of ordering more artisan tools, cork and other raw materials to support the steadily growing subscription carving club. But an uncertain and frequently changing tariff environment means sudden price hikes for the unique items that come from places like Japan and Portugal. For Busy Baby owner Beth Fynbo Benike, 2025 was stacking up to be a growth-spurt year for the business she started in 2017. The Army veteran’s baby products company got its foot in the door at Walmart and Target, and she just placed her largest-ever order to replenish inventory for her website and Amazon. That container of goods, however, now will cost her nearly $230,000 to arrive on US soil. The erratic nature of President Donald Trump’s trade policies and the severity of newly imposed tariffs have wreaked havoc on small businesses in the US, causing costs to quickly skyrocket, unsettling longstanding supply chains, swiftly stifling growth and expansion plans — and threatening to kill American-bred businesses. “I’m fully leveraged against this, and the first thought that came to my head is, ‘I’m going to lose my house. My boys are not going to have a place to live,’” Benike said.