LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump stopped in the swing state of Nevada on Friday to promote his popular “no tax on tips” proposal, even as he picked up a potentially huge tip of his own: a statement of support from outgoing independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“We just got a very nice endorsement from RFK,” Trump told 200 supporters in the banquet hall of a restaurant in Sin City. “I want to thank Bobby. That was very nice. He’s a great guy and respected by everyone.”
Trump used the Democratic offspring’s endorsement to take a swipe at his original opponent, who had withdrawn from the race under pressure from his own party.
“The Democrats treated him very badly, and then they treated Biden the same way,” the former president told reporters after the event.
Trump addressed other news of the day, saying there was “a lot to learn” from the suspension of at least five Secret Service agents, including one of his bodyguards, this week. The suspension was based on an investigation into the attack in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which one rally participant was killed and two injured.
Twenty-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks hit the former president, who narrowly escaped death thanks to a lucky turn of his head.
Nevada – where a Redfield-Wilton poll this week puts him ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris 43% to 42%, although that could change depending on the decision of the 6% who support Kennedy – is, in Trump’s view, a key factor in his quest to return to the White House after his 2020 defeat.
“If we win this state, if we win Nevada, we will win something very, very special,” he told the crowd.
Trump was harshly critical of the Democratic Party during this week’s convention, but he defended the Supreme Court’s 6-3 overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, returning abortion regulation to the states: “Nobody wanted that – nobody wanted that – in the federal government.”
When a reporter asked Trump if he wanted to “take away his right to abortion,” the crowd erupted into chants of “bullshit” and “baby killer” at the journalist.
As usual at his rallies, the former president addressed a wide range of topics.
Regarding Harris’ plans to raise the corporate tax, he said: “If they raise taxes too high, these companies will leave the United States and take the jobs with them.”
He pushed for the release of federal land for development: “We will create housing, and that will be great for Nevada.”
But “no tax on tips” remained the focus. Trump rebuked Harris for adopting the proposal, which he first made at a large outdoor rally here on June 9.
“Two months later, they copied us. She is the greatest turnaround artist in history. She went from communism to capitalism in two weeks,” he said.
He said Harris supported a bill that would eliminate the tip credit and impose a service fee, forcing workers to earn minimum wage.
Not everyone in the local service sector is convinced by Trump’s promise. Two hours before the event, local Democrats sent union officials, workers and the owner of a local hair salon to the stage to thwart the plan, even though the Culinary Union had quickly endorsed Trump’s proposal months before Harris intervened.
But Nicole Williams, a member of Local 226 and a bartender at the Wynn Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, disagrees with the union leadership. She told The Post that Trump’s plan would help her and her husband raise their seven children.
“I had to go back to work much earlier than planned after my nine-month-old baby was born eight weeks early last November because of the economy,” Williams said at the Trump event. “The increased costs mean our family has to cut back on extras, like my daughters’ gymnastics and my six-year-old’s flag football.”
Williams said, “The money would stay in my own family’s pockets and not in the government’s pockets, and that would make a tremendous difference to my life and the lives of the people in my community.”
