Economy White House Politics & Business May 5, 2026

Trump’s National Small Business Week celebration had gold, silver, pretzels, a reflecting pool story that’ll make your jaw drop — and a TV legend who said out loud what millions of small business owners are thinking.

36M Small businesses represented in the room

$45B SBA lending guaranteed in 2025 — an all-time record

100% Of new jobs since inauguration in the private sector

If you want to understand why Trump’s bond with small business America runs so deep, Monday’s National Small Business Week celebration at the White House told the whole story in about 67 minutes. Tax cuts, tariff wins, a steel company back from the dead, pretzels he wanted to steal, a reflecting pool saved for $1.9 million instead of $350 million — and Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison standing at the most famous podium in the world saying what half of Main Street has been thinking for two years.

Harrison, the gold and silver pawn shop owner and longtime fixture of American television, wasn’t even supposed to speak. Trump spotted him in the audience, pulled him up, and what followed was the kind of unrehearsed moment no speechwriter could manufacture. Harrison told the room — and the cameras — that under Biden, small business owners were made to feel like “the evil people.” Then he looked at Trump and said it plainly.