The Trump administration’s pay-to-play attitude, failures to tackle fraud and enabling fraudsters puts small businesses at risk. CREW President Donald Sherman is testifying today before the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship explaining how the Trump administration’s corruption harms the American economy, especially small businesses.

The president routinely grants access to businesses that pay money to his companies, PACs and pet projects, giving big business a seat at the table that most small businesses cannot afford. For example, last week, corporate giants like Meta, Apple and Tesla, who contributed to Trump’s inauguration, ballroom or super PAC, were part of the White House delegation to China. Yet, small businesses, devastated by tariffs including from China, did not get comparable representation at the summit.

The Trump administration’s removal of oversight mechanisms including inspectors general, cuts to government operations and pardoning of fraudsters with impunity in particular have hurt the government’s ability to fight fraud—leaving small businesses at higher risk.

Small businesses account for nearly 46% of private sector employment and also are frequently targeted by scams that cost them tens of billions of dollars—in 2025, 72% of small businesses were the target of fraud. Recognizing these distinct challenges, SBA has historically provided resources for small businesses to identify fraud and the SBA’s Office of Inspector General ensures that federal funds designated for small businesses aren’t exploited. The White House has proposed cutting SBA OIG’s budget and also hamstrung funding for the IG community’s oversight body.

In addition to undercutting fraud prevention, Trump has enabled fraudsters and wiped out payments owed to fraud victims by pardoning his political allies and donors, an act that experts warn may deter future prosecutions, leaving small businesses at risk. One egregious example is his pardon of a Trump donor who was sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding investors and who prosecutors argued should pay more than $660 million in restitution – restitution which he now doesn’t have to pay thanks to a presidential pardon. Another fraudster pardoned by Trump admitted to withholding from the IRS around $39 million in payroll taxes in his nursing home businesses, and court documents demonstrate the significant toll his fraud took on patients and workers, including small businesses left with unpaid bills.

Fraud and corruption are corrosive to our democracy anywhere we find it. But instead of taking a holistic approach to deterring, detecting, and preventing fraud, the administration’s purported anti-fraud efforts have instead targeted disfavored states and programs that benefit the most vulnerable, while creating a culture of impunity for rich, politically connected fraudsters who harm small businesses. Congress can truly support the fight against fraud by supporting IG independence, federal civil servants that investigate fraud, and legislation that prohibits the exchange of donations for pardons.

Read the testimony here.

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