LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump is using a stop Saturday in Las Vegas to offer details on how he can begin excluding tips from federal taxes, betting that a city built on gambling and the hospitality industry will relish taking home larger slices of gratuities.
Trump is vowing to make good on a campaign promise and will give a speech at the Circa Resort & Casino, according to the Culinary Union, which represents about 60,000 hospitality workers across Nevada. The union supports eliminating taxes on tips, but says Trump's proposals don't go far enough.
His appearance is intended to energize supporters and strike a grateful tone. But it comes as part of a trip where Trump has already picked a series of political fights.
He spent Friday seeing storm damage firsthand and hearing harrowing stories from survivors of last fall’s Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. In Los Angeles, he viewed the devastation from wildfires that could be among the costliest natural disasters in the nation's history.
Trump toured hard-hit areas by helicopter and walked a street where every home was reduced to charred, rubble in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
The president suggested in North Carolina that he would sign an executive order eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, leaving disaster response and recovery up to the affected states, with the federal government only stepping in later to help with funding.
"You are not forgotten any longer. You were treated very badly by the previous administration,” Trump said of the Biden White House.
Later, the Republican president criticized California’s water policies and suggested that funding to rebuild after the fires should depend on the state imposing voter ID requirements and rethinking conservation efforts.
“I’ll be the president who’s going to help you fix it because he would not have been able to help you fix it,” Trump said of his Democratic predecessor and the Biden team's response to the blazes.
In Nevada, by contrast, Trump said he wants to celebrate being the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since George W. Bush in 2024: “I’m going to Nevada to thank them."
It's a familiar backdrop to talk tips and taxation. As a candidate, Trump first announced the idea during a rally last June in Las Vegas — a proposal later copied by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday's event “will be an economy-focused message, and President Trump will be talking about promises that he intends to keep that he made to the American people on the campaign trail.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are 2.24 million restaurant servers across the country, with tips making up a large percentage of their income.
In Las Vegas, the 24-hour economy is fueled by everyone from wait staff and valet parkers to hotel maids and casino dealers, all of whom collect tips. Nevada has the nation's highest concentration of tipped workers, with about 25.8 waiters and waitresses alone per 1,000 jobs, followed by Hawaii and Florida.
Not paying federal taxes will likely be difficult to put in place in the short term, however, and require an act of Congress.
Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, said Trump's plans “must not end” with scrapping taxation on tips.
“Eliminating taxes on tips and ending the $2.13 sub-minimum wage, that is the reality in too many states across the country, will uplift millions of hospitality workers,” Pappageorge said. He said many employers who know their workers earn tips offer set hourly pay well below the federal minimum wage and expect gratuities to make up the difference.
"Taking on both issues is critical to ensuring one job is enough for workers to support their families,” Papageorge said in a statement.
