Former president Donald Trump’s first campaign event in Nevada since his Democratic rival Joe Biden dropped out was billed as an event to tout Trump’s “no tax on tips” policy.
But that message was overshadowed by Arizona independent candidate Robert F Kennedy’s announcement that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Trump.
“We just had a very nice endorsement from RFK,” Trump said at the Las Vegas campaign event Friday.
Trump said it was “a great honor” to receive Kennedy’s endorsement, adding he would be meeting with him soon to discuss his support. Despite Kennedy’s declining polling numbers and past controversies, Trump praised him and his endorsement.
“Not everyone agrees with everything he says. That’s true of everybody, but he’s a very respected person. He’s a very beloved person in many ways,” Trump said.
Kennedy joined Trump during a campaign event in Arizona on Friday following Trump’s Las Vegas event.
With Kennedy no longer campaigning in critical battleground states, his voters are up for grabs in tight swing states. Following the endorsement, Trump’s campaign team said they believe a majority of Kennedy’s Nevada voters will break for Trump based on their own internal modeling, making his exit a net positive for Trump in major swing states.
The latest The New York Times and Siena College poll shows Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his new rival for the presidency, neck-and-neck in Nevada — a state Biden won four years ago — with Trump leading Harris 48% to 47%.
“We’re going to win. The state is looking very good,” Trump said Friday.
It’s far from clear what if any impact Kennedy’s departure from the race will have in Nevada. Trump’s lead over Harris was actually larger when the NYT-Siena poll included Kennedy in the mix, putting Trump at 45%, Harris at 42%, and Kennedy garnering 6%.
Friday’s campaign event was Trump’s first Nevada appearance since rival Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris earlier last month.
The low-profile affair held in a Las Vegas restaurant also came within 24 hours of the last night of a raucous Democratic National Convention that officially nominated Harris.
Trump delivered remarks pushing his “no tax on tips” policy proposal at the Toro E La Capra restaurant, located near Sunset Road and Decatur Boulevard. The proposal would abolish federal income taxes on tips.
Trump first unveiled the policy during a campaign rally in Las Vegas in June. The policy was quickly endorsed by the politically connected Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas.
At Friday’s event, Trump suggested his declaration to end the federal taxation of tipped income would earn him voters from Culinary workers.
“We want to get the Culinary Union,” Trump said. “A lot of them are voting for us, I can tell you that.”
The Culinary, however, has endorsed Harris, and prior to Trump’s remarks Friday, Culinary officials held an event and issued a statement slamming Trump.
“Kamala Harris has promised to raise the minimum wage for all workers – including tipped workers – and eliminate tax on tips,” said Culinary Vice President Leain Vashon.
Vashon said Trump didn’t help tipped workers while he was president, so “Why would we trust him? Kamala has a plan, Trump has a slogan.”
While details on Trump’s tax policy are scant, the policy proposal quickly gained steam, leading Nevada Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen to back a “no tax on tips,” bill introduced by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Harris later proposed her own “no tax on tips” policy.
“Kamala Harris is now pretending to endorse my policy,” Trump said. “She’s a copycat. She’s a flip flopper.”
Harris’ position — similar to legislation Nevada Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford said he will sponsor — eliminates federal taxation on tips, but would also eliminate the federal subminimum wage on tipped incomes, which can be as low as $2.13 an hour.
Trump Friday criticized Harris’ support for legislation in 2021 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15, noting that legislation also would have eliminated the federal “tip credit” provision.
That is the provision in federal law that allows employers to pay tipped workers less than the federal minimum wage.
“Kamala supports a bill to eliminate the federal tip credit, which would force restaurants to impose large service charges on diners, meaning customers will not leave tips at all, and you’ll be stuck with a minimum wage,” Trump said. “I will never let that happen under the Trump administration.”
Horsford has said his legislation would also include guardrails designed to prevent employers or high-end earners from exploiting the elimination of federal taxation of tips.
The policy may have some appeal in the Silver State. Nevada has one of the largest shares of tipped workers in the nation. Nevada is also one of only seven states that have abolished the subminimum wage for tipped workers altogether.
Nationally, as many as 4.3 million people work in predominantly tipped occupations in the United States, according to the National Employment Law Project. Women also make up more than two-thirds of the tipped workforce, according to the National Woman’s Center. Tipped workers are also more than twice as likely to live in poverty compared to the overall workforce.
Neither the Culinary nor congressional backers can provide an estimate of how much of a financial impact would actually be realized if tips weren’t taxed.
An analysis by the left-leaning Center for American Progress projects that “exempting tips from income taxes does nothing for tipped workers whose earnings are so low that they are already exempt from income taxes.”
The group points to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab indicating at least a third of tipped workers don’t make enough to pay any income taxes, and for moderate wage tipped workers who do pay income taxes, any tax relief from not taxing the tipped portion of their income would be small.
Harris and Trump are set to debate Sept. 10.
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