Although Donald Trump is running for president based on his credentials as a billionaire businessman, he would likely be the worst president for small business, Forbes.com says.
“While the real estate mogul is known for his business ventures, Trump’s election could be a catastrophe for the American economy, and entrepreneurs should especially be aware,”
Forbes.com Contributor Rohit Arora warns.
Trump favors simplifying the tax code and wants to lower taxes to “help the small businesses that are the true engine of our economy,” the GOP front-runner has said.
“Trump cannot relate to the struggles of the average American business owner. Born into wealth, his father issued him with a $1 million loan to get his business off the ground. Despite his claims that his rise to one of the wealthiest Americans wasn’t easy, Trump does not know what it’s like to pinch pennies. Further, his companies claimed bankruptcy four times,” Arora points out.
“So we must not be fooled into thinking that everything Trump touches turns to gold,” Arora said.
“What is more worrisome is that the policies he is proposing would be harmful to long-term small business growth,” he explains, citing Trump’s plans to keeping immigrants out of America and for a building a wall across the southern border to stop the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico.
Arora also said Trump’s vow to cut the $77.4 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Education could be especially damaging to small business.
“Among the various federally funded initiatives in the department include the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, a research and development projects that investigates important education or assistive technology, science, or engineering question under topics identified each year in the solicitation,” Arora said.
“What is most worrisome is that his possible election could stop hurt entrepreneurship since many startup businesses are started by immigrants — the very people he wants to prevent from entering the country,” Arora said.
Arora isn't alone in questioning the ripple effects of a Trump presidency.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers thinks a Trump presidency would be a disaster across the board: politically, economically and financially.
“The possible election of Donald Trump as president is the greatest present threat to the prosperity and security of the United States,” Summers writes in the
Washington Post.
“A growing sense that a protectionist demagogue could soon become president of the United States would surely introduce great uncertainty at home and abroad. The resulting increase in risk premiums might well be enough to tip a fragile U.S. economy into recession,” Summers wrote.
“Concern that the U.S. was becoming protectionist and isolationist could easily undermine confidence in many emerging markets and set off a financial crisis,” Summers explained.
“The sooner Donald Trump is relegated to the margins of our national life, the better off we and the world will be.”
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