Jennifer Solis, Nevada Current

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 declares support for subminimum wage

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.

Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and X.

In President Joe Biden’s first campaign event since the assassination attempt of Donald Trump, he called for the deescalation of divisive political rhetoric while maintaining that a second Trump term would be a threat to democracy.

“Just because we must lower the temperature in our politics as it relates to violence doesn’t mean we should stop telling the truth,” Biden told a crowd of about 4,700 at the NAACP National Convention at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Since the shooting, Biden and his campaign have had to navigate a campaign strategy that both condemns Trump’s actions, while cooling political rhetoric surrounding the presidential race.

After the shooting the Biden campaign temporarily paused campaign ads, but Biden did not shy away from criticizing Trump in Las Vegas Tuesday for regressive policies and legislation enacted under his presidency.

Biden highlighted the former president’s connection to Project 2025, a detailed plan —crafted with the help of several former Trump officials — to dramatically expand presidential powers and restructure the federal government in the first days and weeks of a new Republican presidency.

“You ought to read it,” Biden said. “They want to cut Social Security and Medicare. They want to wipe away protections for pre-existing conditions from 40 million people. They want to stop Medicare from negotiating lower prescription drug prices, risking people’s lives and costing the government more money.”

In a forceful delivery, Biden warned that some of the goals of Project 2025 have already played out across the country, particularly in states that have restricted access to abortion after the Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade.

Biden laid out his own plans for the first 100 days of his second term, saying one of his top priorities is to “restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land” causing the audience to chant “four more years.” Biden also vowed to use the first 100 days of a second term to pass legislation expanding voting rights, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

Biden’s remarks were well received at the NAACP conference, a major partner in his efforts to drive turnout among Black voters, his core base. Despite calls from some Democrats to step aside in the wake of his disastrous June 27 debate performance, the Congressional Black Caucus continued to back Biden.

Biden criticized Trump for accusing Hawaii-born President Barack Obama of not being a U.S. citizen. Biden said Trump’s divisive rhetoric has continued, pointing out his recent use of the phrase “Black jobs” during the aforementioned June debate.

“I know what a Black job is. It’s the vice president of the United States,” Biden said of Vice President Kamala Harris. He also referenced Obama as the first Black president in the United States, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black and female justice, who he himself appointed.

Standing in a crowded convention room at the Mandalay Bay — the sight of the most deadly mass shooting in modern history — Biden called for an assault rifle ban.

“An AR-15 was used in the shooting of Donald Trump. The same weapon that killed so many others, including children. It’s time to outlaw them,” Biden said.

“If you’re going to be outspoken on one,” consequence of gun violence, “don’t be silent on others,” Biden said.

Biden’s speech also comes as the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin enters its second day. During the Republican convention Trump announced Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate. Biden is scheduled to speak to Latino leaders at the UnidosUS Annual Conference also in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and X.

For voters waiting hours in line to see Donald Trump at the Big League Dreams stadium in Las Vegas Saturday, other Republican presidential hopefuls are a small blip on the former president’s path to the party nomination.

Boyd, a 73-year old retiree, said he threw away his Nevada primary ballot after learning Trump wasn’t on it. During his speech later in the day, Trump would echo that sentiment and tell supporters not to “waste time” on the Republican primary. For Boyd, who declined to give his last name, Trump’s victory is a given.

“I didn’t come here for the popcorn,” he said.

There’s no doubt Trump will win the Nevada Republican Party-run presidential caucus next week. Other than token opposition from an unknown Texan named Ryan Binkley who has mounted no campaign, Trump is the only candidate on the caucus ballot.

Former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the last line of defense against a Trump nomination, declined to join the party-led caucus in Nevada and filed to be on the state-run primary ballot instead.

While she won’t be an option for Nevada caucus-goers, and hasn’t established a campaign presence in Nevada, she continues to have hefty financial backing nationally. In the second half of 2023, the main super PAC backing Haley raised $50.1 million, eclipsing the $46 million brought in by Trump’s super PAC.

But no matter how much weight the Republican Party’s donor class puts behind a candidate, voters still have their say. And so far, voters in both Iowa and New Hampshire have chosen Trump, despite his losing track record and indictments for a total of 91 felony counts in a variety of criminal cases.

Trump supporters who agreed to be interviewed told the Nevada Current there are many reasons behind their devotion to the former president. They said Trump put money in their pocket, got rid of the North American Free Trade Agreement, policed the border with an iron fist, started a trade war with China, and didn’t involve the U.S. in any foreign wars.

During the 2022 midterm campaigns a wave of mini-Trump Republicans ran for offices in places like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, as well as Nevada. Most lost, however, just like Trump did in 2020, and as Republicans in Nevada and around the nation did in the prior midterms in 2018. Never-Trumpers’ consistent warnings, as well as those from Republican candidates who challenged Trump in this year’s presidential race, about the former president’s alienation of general election voters has made little impact on Trump loyalists.

This time will be different, said voters waiting for Trump to arrive at the Big League Dreams stadium in Las Vegas. Because despite clear evidence disputing all accounts of mass election fraud in 2020, and a reluctance to label themselves full-blown “election deniers,” much of Trump’s base is committed to the belief that election interference cost him the race in 2020.

“I saw a lot of shady things,” said Catherine Cates, a self-identified former Democrat who plans to caucus for Trump. “They can say none of it happened but with our eyes, and our ears, and our experience, we know better.”

Her husband, Wayne Cates, was more direct. He pulled out his phone and pointed to a breakdown of registered voters between 1996 and 2022, calculating what he considers discrepancies in the number of ballots counted.

“I don’t can’t care what they say, 2020 was stolen. The numbers show it,” Wayne said.

Shannon, a Texas native vacationing in Las Vegas with two friends, decided to attend the rally as soon as she heard Trump would be speaking. She explained that she couldn’t foresee any way Trump could legitimately lose again to Biden.

“Everybody’s concerned about the border and inflation that has been caused by Biden,” she said.

Under Trump, before the COVID pandemic crashed the economy, GDP was 2.5%. In the third quarter of 2023 under Biden, it was 4.9%. But voters aren’t economists. They often judge presidents on the basis of personal economic stability. Inflation has snatched away the gains from even a strong labor market and price hikes on essentials like groceries and housing outran wages for many. Voters didn’t hold Trump’s massive tax cuts to wealthy voters against him, despite polls showing the popularity of wealth taxes. For many, it didn’t affect them personally.

Shannon and other voters who spoke to the Current dismissed warnings that Trump is a threat to democracy as slanted. For those outside Trump’s orbit, the former president’s conviviality with autocrats like Russia’s Vladimire Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán suggests Trump has an admiration for autocrats and a reluctance to stand up to them. But for his supporters it’s a foreign policy selling point.

“The entire time Trump was president, there were no new wars,” said Sophia Landin, a 19-year old who plans to enlist in the military. “Other countries see him as someone strong. People are afraid of him. And that’s a good thing.”

“He’s the first president to set foot in North Korea. So that’s really saying something,” she continued, sporting a hat bedazzled with three letters, USA.

Hawkish policies are another reason Trump voters soured on Haley, said Catherine Cates, the self-identified former Democrat.

“She makes way too much money under the military. She’s not going to have an unbiased opinion. She’s not going to have her family die. We’re going to have our family die,” Cates said, referencing Haley’s financial ties to Boeing, a defense and aerospace company on whose board she served for about a year.

“My family’s military and I don’t want to see young people dying in a war that we really have nothing to do with,” she continued.

Trump voters strayed from classic Republican values in other areas too. Many were supportive of big government earned-benefits like Medicare and Medicaid, and many were interested in the government potentially doing more for them, especially in health care.

Boyd, the 73-year old retiree, said he encountered the failing medical system last year when he had to get an operation on his elbow.

“Why are there countries that spend half of what we do, and they have something better? And I think, personally, I think the main problem is the pharmaceutical industry, the hospital industry, they’re in it for themselves,” Boyd said, adding that he believes Trump is the right guy to direct a systemic solution.

“I don’t think he does anything for political means, so to speak. And I believe that he wants to do what’s right for the country,” he continued.

Trump’s recent vows to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, didn’t faze him and other loyal Trump supporters waiting to see him in Las Vegas. The program never worked, he said, and if it’s dismantled something else can be built. But those views may not be a reflection of the greater voting population. Polling shows the insurance program enjoys comfortable and consistently growing support among a majority of voters. Still, in the several years following passage of the ACA, and including during Trump’s administration as president, Republicans have made multiple failed attempts to repeal the ACA.

Trump voters pointed to the former president’s pledge to be a stalwart protector of Medicare and Social Security — even after his administration regularly proposed cuts to the programs in his budget proposals. When asked their thoughts on Trump’s contradictory statements on social security, many of his supporters projected a sort of defeated fatalism about the future of the country, whether their preferred candidate wins or not.

Susan, a Florida resident who stopped by the Trump rally during her Las Vegas vacation, was pensive when relaying her thoughts.

“I’ve lived as if Social Security won’t be there when I retire and I’m very close to that age,” Susan said. “I don’t think it should be cut. But if you’re in your 20s I don’t think it should be something that people depend on, especially if our government keeps being run the way it’s been run, there won’t be the money for it. It’s not a good thing but…” she trailed off.

Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and Twitter.