Sba Chief Loeffler Pushes Back Against Media Narrative On Tariffs

SAVANNAH, Georgia—Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler celebrated Friday’s jobs report, dismissed fears about a tariff-induced recession, and expressed optimism that the U.S. economy is “spring-loaded” for success.

“Every meeting I come out of with manufacturers, they are completely enthusiastic and optimistic,” Loeffler told The Daily Signal in an interview at the Job Creators Network’s Freedom Fighters Summit in Savannah on Friday.

“They’re saying, ‘This can happen in America. I’ve been fighting that narrative, that we can’t make it here,’” she said, conveying the manufacturers’ message.

Loeffler went over what her agency had achieved in the first 100 days of the administration: cutting climate activist and diversity lending programs in order to focus on merit; moving regional offices out of “sanctuary” cities that prevent law enforcement from reporting illegal aliens to federal authorities; and launching the “Made in America” manufacturing initiative across the states.

“I think we’ve laid the groundwork for … the remaining 3.8 years,” she said.

Loeffler called the coming years “really exciting,” mentioning Congress’ effort to preserve the Trump tax cuts, decreasing the size and scope of government, and bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

She predicted companies bringing jobs back to the U.S., “driven by the fair-trade policy, and we’re already seeing it at work.”

“President Trump announced at the White House the other day $8 trillion in investments by big companies,” Loeffler noted. “I talked to many of those CEOs. They deploy that capital through small businesses to build out their supply chain, to build, be subcontractors on parts and services, to help their communities have nice restaurants and retail stores.”

“It’s a great time to be a small business,” she said.

Loeffler celebrated the Department of Labor’s April jobs report, released Friday. The report showed that employers added 177,000 jobs in April, above economists’ expectations. Employers added 167,000 private sector jobs, while state and local government job increases offset the decline of 9,000 jobs in the federal government, bringing the total to 10,000 new government jobs.

“Once again, the media was wrong,” the administrator said. “As I’m out across the country talking to manufacturers, they’re hiring. There is a blue-collar boom, and—I like to say—it’s extending into a new-collar boom, because these manufacturing and onshore logistics and transportation opportunities are technology-centric. They’re great-paying jobs with great benefits.”

“They’re reinvesting in communities that were hollowed out as our country lost 70,000 factories and 5 million jobs over the last 30 years,” Loeffler, a former senator from Georgia, added. “President Trump’s policies are working to rapidly reverse the pace of that decline.”

She teased that Trump will be announcing new trade deals that “could never have been possible without the president’s strong belief in the American worker and in the American industrial base that is coming back rapidly—and if we can get the tax cuts done, our economy is spring-loaded.”

When asked to identify the most misleading legacy media narrative, Loeffler highlighted Trump’s efforts on trade.

“I think the worst narrative is the incessant focus on tariffs, because we should be saying ‘fair trade’ instead of ‘tariffs,’” the SBA chief said.

“Let’s be very clear: Democrats are against fair trade and what fair trade is doing,” she declared.

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