WSB-TV: “‘I feel like I’m going backwards,’ [small business owner] Patrice Hull said.”
New reporting in WSB-TV highlights the disastrous impacts Trump’s economy-crushing, illegal tariffs are having on Georgians and small businesses a year after “Liberation Day” as GOP U.S. Senate candidates Buddy Carter, Mike Collins, and Derek Dooley continue backing them while Georgians suffer.
- “MAGA warrior” Buddy Carter praised Trump for his tariffs saying that “he’s proud of what [Trump] is doing with the tariffs,” as costs skyrocket.
- MAGA extremist Mike Collins told Georgians that he’s “not worried about the tariffs” and he thinks “it’s good” despite the effects they’re having on hardworking families.
- Failed, fired, loser former Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley told the AJC that Trump’s tariffs “been a good tool,” and claimed “we’ve gotten some great deals out of these tariffs” even as Georgians suffer from higher prices.
Read for yourself:
WSB-TV: Small business owners say tariffs have made survival challenging: ‘I feel like I’m going backwards’
By Eryn Roger | April 5, 2026
KEY EXCERPTS:
- It’s been a year since “Liberation Day,” the sweeping tariffs enacted under the Trump administration.
- Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers was live off of Moreland Avenue for WSB Tonight at 11 p.m.
- She spoke to some small business owners about the impact they’ve seen over the past year.
- One of those businesses is Stuff We Wanna Say in Little Five Points.
- The owner says her store used to be filled with custom products. But she says her shelves are the empties they’ve because it’s been harder to manufacture them.
- “I feel like I’m going backwards,” Patrice Hull said.
- She has spent 14 years in business, sporting her brand Created 2 B Noticed. But for most of this year, she felt she was fighting to be seen.
- “It got even worse when I realized it was going to put another 20% or more on that product that I’m already strained to purchase,” Hull said.
- Thursday marked a year since “Liberation Day,” when President Donald Trump announced import taxes on nearly every country in the world.
- But a year later, small business owners say they’re still struggling.
- “My duty tax to for my imports went from $10,000 last year to $55,000, so that is a substantial increase to a company that is already operating on low margins,” said Travis Reid, who owns Square 1 Art, which digitizes children’s artwork for schools across the country to use for fundraisers.
- “It’s not just the direct import costs. As small businesses, you’re absorbing all of the downstream increases from all of your vendors,” Reid said.
- He says the tariffs aren’t sustainable for business owners or the consumers.
- “It’s been really stressful. Now, I’ve learned to pivot,” Reid said.
- But they say if costs continue to go up, “you’re just going to see more and more small businesses go out of business, and that’s not good for anybody.” […]