Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with a donation of any size.
The Trump administration has announced that it is holding a competition show that pits American small business owners against each other for $1 million worth of prizes — except the show’s five finalists have already been chosen, and records show at least three of them listed as military contractors.
The “live finale event” of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) “Million Dollar Pitch Competition,” marketed as part of the America 250 celebration, is slated to be held in D.C. and broadcast live on September 18th. On Monday, the agency announced that the show, sponsored by point-of-sale technology company Clover, will be judged by rapper Nicki Minaj, private equity company owner and real estate investor Grant Cardone, and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia. The host is actor and TV host Dean Cain.
In the show, the finalists “will pitch their small businesses for a chance to win a portion of a $1 million cash prize pool” to the celebrity judge panel, according to the SBA. All five businesses are slated to earn prize money, with the first place winner getting $400,000 in prize money, down to $75,000 for fifth place.
Earlier this year, the SBA opened up a “Patriot Pitch Competition” in which businesses were judged for their contributions to categories like “strengthening American competitiveness” and “economic impact.” Applicants were whittled down to a selection of 68 by SBA officials, and eventually down to five finalists in July, who were chosen by a “committee of 5 judges convened by the Administrator,” Kelly Loeffler, according to the agency.
“The Million Dollar Pitch Competition is really amplifying the importance of small businesses across America,” Loeffler said on Fox News on Tuesday. “This is what the Trump administration stands with: these main street job creators that are building American strength. Think about: it took 3,000 small businesses to get Artemis II mission to the moon. It takes 400 small businesses to build a Patriot missile.”
Last month, the agency announced its five finalists: Compotech, Inc. from Brewer, Maine; Plas-Tech Tooling from Garner, Iowa; Red River from Gillette, Wyoming; VetPowered LLC from San Diego, California; and Winton Machine from Suwanee, Georgia.
All five of them are manufacturers — and at least three have received contracts from the Department of Defense for military-related work, the federal government’s federal awards database shows.
Defense technology company Compotech, according to the database, has received $9.1 million from the Pentagon in the past 10 years, specifically from the Army. Loeffler and Vice President J.D. Vance spoke at its facilities in Brewer last week. In her remarks at the event, Loeffler touted the company’s success in producing “lifesaving ballistics for our U.S. Army” while vilifying socialism.
Winton Machine is listed as having received numerous contracts from the DOD over the years, and was previously named as the SBA’s “2026 Exporter of the Year”; Winton lists having served the U.S. military and big contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon as its clients.
Contestant VetPowered is already listed as having received nearly $400,000 from federal contracts with the Pentagon for various equipment needs.
Red River doesn’t appear to be listed on the database, but its website also lists doing military-related work.
The competition comes as the SBA has teamed up with the Pentagon in order to expand the defense industrial base’s capacity by establishing the “Smaller War Plants Commission,” which aims to expand the nation’s military production capacity by investing in “small suppliers.”
It’s not uncommon for the SBA to hold competitions for entrepreneurs and those fueling “innovation.” However, the Trump administration has already raised eyebrows for its focus on various competition and reality shows. At another America 250-themed competition earlier this year, known as the Presidential 1776 Award competition, the Trump administration was accused of rigging the civics competition against a Sikh child to prevent him from advancing to the finals.
An urgent fundraising appeal: 6 Days to raise $41,000
Truthout is one of only a few platforms for justice-oriented, grassroots journalism. Today, we face an existential threat.
Due to Google’s launch of AI search, we’ve seen a drastic plunge in our site traffic and, as a result, our revenue. We lost 15 percent of our readership overnight. This was a readership we painstakingly built over decades, and it vanished because Google chose corporate greed over a healthy democracy.
We are fundraising right now to meet our basic operating expenses. If you can support Truthout with a one-time or monthly donation, you will make a significant impact on our work. Anything you can do makes a difference — we appreciate your support.