Small but rich
Sweeping data released by the Small Business Administration on who benefited from pandemic relief programs raises questions about the equitability and distribution of loans intended for small businesses, an initial analysis by NBC News shows.
The analysis found that properties owned by the Trump Organization as well as the Kushner Companies, owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, profited from the program.
Does that sound corrupt? Just a little.
After months of litigation, the SBA released the dataset Tuesday night on every small business that received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loan.
…
Over 25 PPP loans worth more than $3.65 million were given to businesses with addresses at Trump and Kushner real estate properties, paying rent to those owners. Fifteen of the properties self-reported that they only kept one job, zero jobs or did not report a number at all.
So more than half of the properties didn’t use the PPP loans to protect any paychecks (or only one paycheck) but did keep paying rent to TrumpKushner. That’s nice. No corruption there at all.
The loans to Trump and Kushner properties included a $2,164,543 loan to the Triomphe Restaurant Corp., at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City. The company reported the money didn’t go to keeping any jobs. It later closed.
After Trump took his cut.
“Many months and broken promises later, the court-ordered release of this crucial data while the Trump administration is one foot out the door is a shameful dereliction of duty and flagrant mismanagement of a program that millions of workers and small businesses needed to get through this pandemic,” Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, an accountability watchdog, said in a statement.
Make Murka Great by funneling more $$$ to Trump and his anemic son-in-law.
The PPP programs’ original stated intent by officials was to help with payroll for small businesses struggling under the effects of coronavirus lockdown measures. The loans aimed to provide a bridge through the summer for what was hoped to be an improved economic and health climate in the fall.
I suspect that by struggling small businesses they didn’t mean fancy restaurants in Trump Tower.
Businesses owned by people of color without strong banking relationships found themselves with limited access and forced them to find other routes for funding. There was also the persistent question of what defined a “small business,” after lobbying by the hotel and restaurant industry ballooned the maximum number of employees allowable to 500, even though over 98 percent of the small businesses in America have fewer than 100 employees.
Whatever. Trump got his cut.
Maybe he thought it was for businesses with small hands and small minds? Naw, he just didn’t give a damn about anyone but Trump and the Trumplings.
But what will he spend it on? My guess is crayons, so he can finish colouring in with his tiny little hands the books in his tiny little library to the satisfaction of his tiny little mind; all done while cooking up petty-minded spoiling schemes to stymie Biden.
The White House has never before had an occupant with an ignorance as profound as Trump’s.
Omar, that describes the Trump Presidential Library perfectly.
latsot, the Trump Presidential Library will contain a bunch of sheets of blank paper with his name on them (in Sharpie) and millions of tweets.
Any one of which might just as well have come from a canary.