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To: United States Treasury Department, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
Treasury Department: Make companies who gamed stimulus programs pay back their loans!
The Paycheck Protection Program is a $660 billion fund approved by Congress that was intended to help small businesses during the coronavirus crisis. But too many small businesses didn’t get the money they desperately needed to survive this economic crisis. Instead, it's Donald Trump’s associates, donors, and firms working for him who got millions of dollars, along with other big corporations.
The United States Treasury Department, whose job it is to properly administer the Paycheck Protection Program, must ensure that these companies are required to pay back all of the money that they received.
The United States Treasury Department, whose job it is to properly administer the Paycheck Protection Program, must ensure that these companies are required to pay back all of the money that they received.
Why is this important?
The Paycheck Protection Program is a $660 billion fund approved by Congress that was intended to help small businesses during the coronavirus crisis.
Yet actual small businesses found it nearly impossible to receive adequate PPP money: A survey of small business owners found that just 12% of Black and Latino business owners who applied for loans received what they asked for, with nearly half of them saying they would have to shut down their businesses. And they weren’t asking for a lot of money—two-thirds of them sought loans of less than $50,000.
But there are companies that easily received money, and a whole lot of it: Donald Trump’s associates, donors, and firms working for him.
The law firm of the lawyer who represented Trump during the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election got between $5 million and $10 million. The Trump Organization’s partner in a hotel and residential tower in Hawaii received a loan in the range of $2 million to $5 million. An energy drink company that donated six figures in corporate money to Trump’s preferred super PAC got a loan in the range of $5 million to $10 million. And a Republican opposition research firm employed by the Trump campaign got a loan between $350 thousand and $1 million.
It’s clear that the Paycheck Protection Program did not benefit the small businesses for which it was intended but instead padded the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, the politically powerful, and the Trump-adjacent. As millions of Americans continue to suffer from this public health crisis and accompanying economic catastrophe, Trump and the GOP have been focused on handing over even more resources to the wealthy and well-connected.
The United States Treasury Department, whose job it is to properly administer the Paycheck Protection Program, must ensure that the companies who gamed the system in taking out loans are required to pay back all of the money that they received.
Yet actual small businesses found it nearly impossible to receive adequate PPP money: A survey of small business owners found that just 12% of Black and Latino business owners who applied for loans received what they asked for, with nearly half of them saying they would have to shut down their businesses. And they weren’t asking for a lot of money—two-thirds of them sought loans of less than $50,000.
But there are companies that easily received money, and a whole lot of it: Donald Trump’s associates, donors, and firms working for him.
The law firm of the lawyer who represented Trump during the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election got between $5 million and $10 million. The Trump Organization’s partner in a hotel and residential tower in Hawaii received a loan in the range of $2 million to $5 million. An energy drink company that donated six figures in corporate money to Trump’s preferred super PAC got a loan in the range of $5 million to $10 million. And a Republican opposition research firm employed by the Trump campaign got a loan between $350 thousand and $1 million.
It’s clear that the Paycheck Protection Program did not benefit the small businesses for which it was intended but instead padded the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, the politically powerful, and the Trump-adjacent. As millions of Americans continue to suffer from this public health crisis and accompanying economic catastrophe, Trump and the GOP have been focused on handing over even more resources to the wealthy and well-connected.
The United States Treasury Department, whose job it is to properly administer the Paycheck Protection Program, must ensure that the companies who gamed the system in taking out loans are required to pay back all of the money that they received.