Trump says he will eliminate tip tax | Wilnesh News

Former President Trump said he would eliminate the tip income tax if he wins a second term in the White House, a move aimed at appealing to voters in the battleground state of Nevada. First rally since conviction.

“Hotel workers and people who get tips, you’re going to be very happy because when I take office we’re not going to tax tips,” trump card said at a rally in Las Vegas. “We will do this immediately, first thing after taking office.”

more than One in four private sector workers Hotel workers in Nevada are employed in high-tip industries, according to the latest state data.

The Trump campaign later acknowledged that any policy to eliminate the tip income tax would require congressional approval.

But House Republicans are not yet considering repealing the tip tax and are working on legislation to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts if he wins the White House in November.

Instead, Trump’s campaign promises reflected Nevada’s status as a must-win state for both Democrats and Republicans.

“If we win Nevada, we win everything,” Trump said during a meandering speech in extremely hot weather on Sunday, during which he complained that his teleprompter was malfunctioning.

The rally was Trump’s first since his May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Nevada has long been viewed as a reliably Democratic state, in part because of the organizing power of the state’s unions.

This year, Republicans believe they can flip Nevada in November, in part because of the state’s black and Latino populations populationpolls show that voters now do not support Biden as strongly as they did in 2020.

Trump’s pledge was not immediately embraced by the workers he targeted.

Instead, the state’s largest union called Trump’s tax-free tip plan “a crazy campaign promise from a convicted felon.”

“Culinary unions have been fighting for the rights of tipped workers and against unfair taxes for decades,” Ted Papagiorgi, secretary-treasurer of the state’s Culinary Workers Union, said in a statement on Sunday.

“Relief is absolutely needed for tip earners, but Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and crazy campaign promises from convicted felons,” Papachi said.

Trump’s pledge is also a direct challenge to President Joe Biden’s brand of worker-first politics, which has sought to focus much of his economic platform on cracking down on big corporations and protecting organized labor.

Several recent polls have shown Trump narrowly defeating Biden in key battleground states such as Nevada, which is likely to determine the outcome of the November election.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s pledge to eliminate the tip tax.

The tax-free tip pledge is the latest step in Trump’s evolving economic agenda.

Other measures include extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and imposing widespread tariffs on all imports, especially from China. Economists have long said the agenda could lead to a ballooning federal deficit and higher inflation.

Even so, voters consistently tell pollsters they trust Trump more than Biden to manage the U.S. economy. They also seem to remember the Trump-era economy through rose-tinted lenses: When Trump left office in 2021, the unemployment rate was 6.3%, and the economy had lost a net 2.9 million jobs since he took office, according to the nonpartisan FactCheck.org job opportunity.

Biden and Trump are scheduled to hold their first presidential debate on June 27, where the economy is likely to be the main focus.