Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran slams Trump’s coronavirus relief response: It’s been horrendous

Shark Tank host and entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran is none too pleased with the way the Trump administration has rolled out relief for impacted small business owners in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown.

Highlighting the fact that only one of her 17 businesses that applied for loans through the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) heard back that they would receive anything at all despite being among the first to apply, Corcoran called the execution of the emergency program “horrendous.”

“I think everybody was well intended with the stimulus package and they made a lot of promises they intended to keep, I just think the execution of the whole program is pretty horrendous,” she told Yahoo Finance’s YFi PM, adding that there were similar oversights in planning for the surge in unemployment.

“The idea they didn’t expect they would have a surge of people applying, most people who are living hand-to-mouth right now, the people that were let go aren’t getting their checks for three weeks, six weeks, some as late as eight weeks predicted in some of the states. That’s over promising and underdelivering,” she said. “In a way it’s more mean than not promising in the first place.”

Shark Tank host Barbara Corcoran has invested in numerous businesses. All but one has so far not heard back about relief through the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program. (Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images)

The U.S. Small Business Administration reported that more than $300 billion of the $349 billion allocated for small business relief had been approved as of Wednesday afternoon, leaving some to fear that the program would be exhausted well before relief even came close to the totals needed. Large banks struggled earlier in the month to provide consistent answers surrounding issues with applications and loan access.

“When I’m hearing about all this money being doled out, I’m wondering who’s getting it,” Corcoran said. “I’m going to be worrying a little bit more about my businesses that I believe will make it through.”

The program was intended to provide much needed funds to businesses on the brink in order to keep employees on the payroll.

‘The real billionaires club’

Earlier this month, Corcoran said she expected more than half of her Shark Tank businesses to fail due to the lockdown imposed across nearly the entire country.

Corcoran, who sold her real estate company for more than $60 million in 2001, was also critical of President Trump’s decision to assemble a working group of more than 200 CEOs, executives and thought-leaders as part of his Great American Economic Revival plan. The group includes billionaire JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“It’s basically the club he always wanted to be a member of, ‘The real billionaires club’ that he couldn’t get in and now he runs the show,” she said. “You don’t turn around and ask 200 people and collect all these opinions. It’s really a vanity group, I just can’t believe he would even waste the time doing it.”

Zack Guzman is the host of YFi PM as well as a senior writer and on-air reporter covering entrepreneurship, cannabis, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.

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