Trump to promote tax breaks in Las Vegas, where residents feel the pinch

LAS VEGAS– President Donald Trump is traveling to Las Vegas on Thursday to promote the tax cuts he signed into law last year and try to highlight what Republicans see as economic strength ahead of this year’s elections.

Workers who earn tips and overtime are getting bigger returns this tax season, but those and other savings from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that Trump signed last year have been eaten away by rising gasoline prices driven by the war in Iran.

The president’s rare trip to the West comes as Trump faces growing political pressure to end the war and focus on a message that helps his party as it tries to defend its congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections.

On Friday, Trump will hold an event in Phoenix with the conservative political group Turning Point USA. But his first stop is Las Vegas where he will hold a roundtable discussion with several police officers who benefited from new tax breaks on overtime, as well as a barber and a casino supervisor, who were able to claim the new tax breaks on tips.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the average tax refund this year was more than $3,400, up about $340 from last year.

Trump said he first conceived his “no tax on tips” plan in Las Vegas, a city where entertainment is the financial lifeblood and many workers rely on tips from visitors.

But it’s also a city of commuters, including tipped workers who commute to their jobs at glitzy casinos. Gasoline costs an average of $5 a gallon in Las Vegas, up 28 percent from a year ago, according to AAA.

Nicholas Delaney, a flight attendant who lives in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson and who said he didn’t vote for president in 2024, said he thinks Trump is doing a “terrible” job on the cost of living. He believes the tax break for tipping is good policy, but he worries about the cost of groceries and gas.

“I have to spend over $100 for a tank of gas, 13 gallons? That’s crazy,” Delaney said.

Paula Goodman, a bartender at a Henderson casino, said the cost of living is her biggest concern right now, adding that she spends more than $400 a week on groceries for her family.

But Goodman, who voted for the president, said she thought he was “doing a really good job” and didn’t blame him for high gas prices, which she described as just a fluctuation. As a bartender, she said she personally appreciates the tax savings on the tips she takes home.

“Every little penny these days is huge,” she said. “You’ve seen diesel, right? $6.11.”

The White House said Trump was focused on tax cuts, deregulation and increasing U.S. energy production to bring down prices, and described high gas prices as a temporary disruption from the war in Iran.

“Tens of millions of Americans are benefiting this tax season from provisions signed by the president” in the tax law, said White House spokesperson Kush Desai, saying it shows “how much the administration has not lost sight of implementing our financial accessibility agenda in our country.”

Despite this, the conflict has made things less affordable. The Bank of America Institute reviewed its deposit and spending data and concluded in an analysis Tuesday that “the average increase in tax refunds could cover the average increase in gasoline spending for at least five months.”

Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, the insurance and financial services company, said in an analysis last week that “the sharp rise in gasoline prices appears likely to completely offset the increase in tax revenue for households,” noting that the refunded money would likely prevent a steeper decline in consumer spending.

Trump’s economic message, focused on tax breaks, was also drowned out this week by distractions from the president himself, who even angered some of his own supporters when he got into a public fight with the pope and posted a now-deleted image on social media posing as Jesus.

Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said that among Republicans, “frustration and concern is growing every week about whether or not we will be able to hold on to the House in November.”

It takes a lot of repetition for a message like promoting the tax bill to get across to voters, but Trump’s tendency to drift to other topics can dilute that, Bonjean said. Trump, who has sometimes called affordability issues a “hoax” and a “scam” by Democrats, must recognize the economic realities people are facing now if he wants to help his party in November, Bonjean said.

“He absolutely needs to talk about his plan to lower the price of gas, otherwise he loses his own message. It won’t be credible to just talk about no tax on tips,” Bonjean said.

Although the president has said he believes the war with Iran will end soon, no agreement to resolve it has yet been reached, with the United States and Iran still expressing sharply divergent positions.

Trump said in a Fox News Channel interview Sunday that gas prices “could be the same or maybe a little higher” by the November midterms.

In another interview on Fox News on Wednesday, Trump returned to that comment. “I think they will be much lower” before the election, assuming the war is long over.

“When this is fixed, gas prices are going to go down significantly,” Trump said.

A few hours later, at the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was less rosy, predicting that gas prices would fall this summer, depending on progress in negotiations with Iran.

“I am optimistic that between June 20 and September 20 we will be able to have $3 gasoline again,” Bessent told reporters.

___

Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.