Fox anchor Dana Perino: Small-business owners have real concerns about losing their businesses due to tariff impacts
Perino: “The small- and medium-sized business owner, who right now are looking at the possibility of losing everything that they've worked for in the next four to six weeks, is very real”
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From the April 29, 2025, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Earlier we went out in the audience and talked to the people, and spoke briefly about the tariffs. And they understand -- the lady right over there, Virginia, was talking about how she understands there is going to be some pain. She's on a retired fixed income, the money still comes in, she's willing to give it a shot because it's worth it if it works.
BILL HEMMER (FOX NEWS ANCHOR): I think that's a great message, Steve. And I think if the White House had gone with that message in the very beginning, about there's going be some pain, I actually think the American people would have cut them a break. What do we hear out of China all the time, we hear XI is preparing his people for a long battle. I think maybe if it's not solved quickly, that might have been a misstep in this term, but it may not be too late to tell the folks here, 'hey, there's going to be a little bit of pain, but we're going to be OK after.'
DANA PERINO (FOX NEWS ANCHOR): I've been a skeptic on the tariffs from the very beginning, actually since the beginning of my life, and so I've held fast to that. I think that it's one thing as a consumer to say I will be able to accept the pain. But the small- and medium-sized business owner, who right now are looking at the possibility of losing everything that they've worked for in the next four to six weeks, is very real. And those aren't the people that are rich people that are like who cares about them. These are people that are really worried, they are trying to hold on. Many of them did support him, voted for him, but right now, I think, it's a question. Tonight, they've already mentioned, they are going to start doing something a little different on foreign imports on automobiles, and he'll be doing that in Michigan because the pain might not be something you can sustain. They have to give us a longer runway, in order to do this appropriately.