By Nathan Layne and David Lawder
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday that he would seek to end taxation of tip income, a direct appeal to service workers in the swing state of Nevada that polls suggest that he is far ahead of the November 5 elections.
Trump also once again appreciated his supporters convicted for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, calling them “warriors” and suggesting a possible counter-investigation into the event if he were re-elected.
The pledge on tips, unveiled at a sweltering outdoor rally in Las Vegas where temperatures reached 100 degrees, adds another detail to a Trump tax plan that included vague promises of tax relief to middle-income workers and small businesses.
“So this is the first time I’m saying this, and for those hotel workers and people who get tips, you’ll be very happy because when I get to the office, we’re not going to tax tips, people (are) making,” Trump said to a crowd of several thousand people.
Trump said he would do so “right away, first in office,” noting in prepared remarks that he would seek legislation in Congress to make the change. “You do a great job, you take care of people and I think it’s something that’s really earned.”
Trump has previously pledged to make permanent the Republican-passed individual tax cuts that he signed in 2017 but are set to expire at the end of 2025. Tax experts estimate that this would increase U.S. deficits by about $4 trillion over 10 years compared to current ones. predictions.
As current law requires, tipped employees must report their tips as income. Eliminating this would further increase deficits without new revenues elsewhere.
Trump’s Democratic opponent, the president Joe Bidenhas pledged to maintain Trump’s tax cuts for households earning less than $400,000 a year, but wants to substantially increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans and big corporations.
The speech in Las Vegas was Trump’s first large-scale rally since a New York jury found him guilty on May 30 of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election. first former US president to be convicted. of a crime.
Trump also continued to hammer Biden on illegal immigration, predicting that Biden’s move last week to issue a broad asylum ban on migrants caught crossing the US-Mexico border illegally would make no difference. even though the ban is similar to the restrictions Trump tried to implement when he was president.
“What he signed is nonsense,” Trump said of Biden’s executive order, prompting a wave of chants from the crowd repeating the profanity.
For days, Las Vegas residents have been dealing with unusually high temperatures, part of a heat wave scorching the southwestern US. The Trump campaign set up misting stations as partly cloudy skies and breezes helped ease the heat, although a handful of people had to be taken for treatment.
SWING STATES
Trump, who has repeatedly called people jailed for their role in the attack on the Capitol “hostages” and said he may pardon them, described them on Sunday as “warriors” without blame.
“Those ‘J-six’ warriors – they were warriors – but actually more than anything, they were victims of what happened. All they did was protest against rigged elections.”
Nevada is one of six or seven swing states that will likely determine the election. A Fox News poll conducted after the guilty verdict showed Trump leading Biden by five percentage points in Nevada, an advantage roughly in line with the average of polls compiled by the polling website FiveThirtyEight.
Rebecca Gill, a political science professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, said she was skeptical that polls fully reflect where voters will stand in a few months, as many are not yet paying attention to the race.
Gill said she didn’t think Trump’s criminal conviction had fully sunk in with voters and could deter some moderate Republicans from supporting him. Additionally, a proposed amendment to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution, if it makes it on the ballot, would likely increase Democratic turnout.
“I think (Nevada) is 100% still in play,” Gill said.
Sunday’s rally follows a three-day Trump fundraising campaign that included stops in San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, during which he raised $33.5 million from donors, according to senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Las Vegas and David Lawder in Washington, additional reporting by Brendan McDermid, Alexandra Ulmer, Brad Brooks and Douglas Gillison; Editing by Ross Colvin, Daniel Wallis, Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft)
