Trump leans into his pledge to eliminate taxes on tips at a Las Vegas rally

[January 27, 2025]  By WILL WEISSERT and THOMAS BEAUMONT

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump came to Las Vegas on Saturday to crow about his campaign promise to eliminate taxes on tips, signaling to allies in Congress the importance of the policy but stopping well short of offering details for making the slogan a reality.

Instead, Trump spent most of his 40 minutes speaking to roughly 1,000 supporters in a casino ballroom lauding his November election victory, mocking former President Joe Biden's administration and touting his torrent of executive actions since taking office Monday.

“But I have to be honest with you, I'm really here for a different reason, I'm here to say thank you," Trump told the crowd at Circa Resort & Casino.

The victory lap, Trump's first swing-state rally since taking office, came after he won Nevada's six electoral votes in November, becoming the first Republican since George W. Bush in 2004 to carry the state. It was part of Trump's sweep of all seven of the most competitive states that gave him a healthy electoral majority and a second, non-consecutive term.

Aides said Trump's stop in Nevada was to deliver an "economic-focused message" built around his familiar promise to hospitality industry workers to remove the tax on gratuity income.

“We're going to get it for you — ‘no tax on tips,’” Trump said, standing behind a podium emblazoned with the same slogan he used throughout the 2024 campaign.

After the rally, Trump strode through the Circa casino floor past its purple-hewed velvet tables, to cheers from visitors of “USA, USA.” At a roulette table, a player yelled, “Give me $47 on 47,” for Trump, now the 47th president. “Ohh,” Trump lamented at the losing throw but he signed autographs as supporters hooted.

If light on detail, Trump's comments on tips were a signal to Republicans in Congress that the proposal is a priority for the massive tax package they intend to pass this year. Trump is set to meet House Republicans on Monday as they gather in Florida to chart the strategy ahead.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who is laboring to get the package moving forward, invited Trump to address a joint session of Congress on March 4, a tradition for new presidents, who don’t deliver a State of the Union address until their second year in office. Johnson said lawmakers working with Trump hope to make the next four years "some of the most consequential in our nation’s history.”

Nevada is a familiar backdrop to talk tips and taxation. As a candidate, Trump first announced the idea of ending gratuity taxes during a rally in June in Las Vegas — a proposal later copied by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak about the economy during an event at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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.

Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, which represents about 60,000 hospitality workers across Nevada, 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 set hourly pay well below the federal minimum wage and expect gratuities to make up the difference.

Despite the stated focus on taxes, the Nevada rally served mostly as a capstone of sorts to Trump’s first week in office, as he recounted for the crowd the executive orders he’d signed and what they'll do.

“We’ve accomplished more in one week than most administrations have experienced in four years and we’re just getting started,” Trump said, adding that his executive orders “reverse the horrible failures and betrayals that we inherited from a group of people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing.”

Trump cited a sweeping freeze on new money for all U.S. foreign assistance, his notice of a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and his order ceasing diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government, among other things.

“We feel a light over our country," Trump said. ”Everyone does."

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

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