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Restaurants have been hit hard. So have beauty salons and retail shops. Earlier this week, a Yelp survey revealed that of the more than 130,000 establishments listed on its platform that temporarily closed their doors in response to covid-19, more than half will not reopen. This isn’t just a temporary setback. It’s all but a mass extinction.
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Richardson holds the man he supported for president in 2016 — Donald Trump — responsible for the catastrophe. “I thought he’s a businessperson, not a politician, maybe he’ll mix things up,” Richardson said. “I could have lived with him till his response to covid.” Now? “If I can do anything to sway a person from Trump to Biden, that’s now my life mission.”
In 2016, many small business owners had a thing for Trump. They liked the idea of an entrepreneur like themselves in the White House. They believed his promise to do something about rising health-care costs. And, mostly, they stuck with him. A poll conducted by CNBC and Survey Monkey this January found 64 percent of small-business owners approved of the president’s performance. Now, some are realizing they are the latest victims of this serial con man.
