A Republican voter who says his small business is being threatened by President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China took to TikTok to ask for help—but quickly found little sympathy.
“All rright I hate asking for help, I’m not asking for any handouts,” the business owner, who goes by @patrihits on TikTok, stated on Thursday. “But I’m a small business owner that is directly being affected by the 104% tariff that has been put on China. I import alloy wheels for cars and I do somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 containers a year, which is a small business in regards to this industry.”
“At 104%, I am absolutely going to implode and will not last six months,” he continued. “So with that said, is there anybody out there that has connections with manufacturing facilities, specifically alloy wheels, either in the United States or outside in these lesser-tariffed countries, like Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, India? I need to find another source. I’ve emailed a lot of these companies and cannot get a response.”
The. text overlay on the video stated: “I voted for you Trump and now you’re putting me out of business.”
@patrihits @donaldjtrumpjr @President Donald J Trump #tariff #usa #wheels #rims #thailand #Indonesia #Mexico #India ♬ original sound – PatriHits Sports Cards
The video has more than 150,000 views and thousands of comments. The majority of them were far from sympathetic.
“Damn that’s wild because I voted for you to have zero tariffs and a $50K tax break as a small business owner under Kamala,” reads the top comment under the video.
“So I voted for your company and you voted against your company got it,” echoed another commenter whose dig likewise received thousands of likes.
“Elections have consequences. Enjoy yours,” replied someone else.
Another critic chimed in: “Hope your business has the success you voted for!!”
“You’re gonna have to build your own manufacturing plant buddy,” blasted another TikToker, referencing Trump’s pledge that tariffs would help return manufacturing back to America.
Riffing on a popular Republican saying, a number of commenters offered: “Thoughts and tariffs.”
The business owner posted a follow-up video Friday, replying to a comment that said “I love this for you,” criticizing the mocking response he was met with.
“Yeah, I voted for Trump, absolutely. Did I know he was going to increase the tariffs? Yes, I did,” he said. “However, I thought that the infrastructure would be set up prior for small business to come back to America and manufacture in America. So to wish ill on someone and to love the fact that they’re suffering, to love the fact that their family is being negatively affected, because I didn’t vote the same way that you did is [expletive] up.”
He went on to explain that he doesn’t judge people based on their politics and has friends across the political spectrum.
“I’m sorry, a lot of you are [expletive] up … I hope you guys can be better people,” he concluded.
But the comment section again wasn’t in the mood for sympathy.
“I didn’t think the leopard would eat MY face,” wrote one person.
“I’m starting to think this is rage bait because there is no way,” concluded someone else.
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