Trump touts economy during Vegas speech, but workers say his policies aren’t helping
President Trump gave a speech in Las Vegas Wednesday, where he praised the U.S. economy but workers in the city say his administration’s policies aren’t helping.
Transcript
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Trump traveled back to Las Vegas to try and pitch voters that his economic agenda is working.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I saw polls today on television that say Donald’s Trump polls on the economy aren’t good. The economy’s the greatest economy we’ve ever had by far.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In a city that relies heavily on tourism, though, tipped workers say Trump’s policies are not helping.
FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram is in Las Vegas and joins us now. Good morning, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So polling does show Trump’s approval rating on the economy is dipping, even among his own supporters. What was his message yesterday in Las Vegas?
SHIVARAM: Trump is really struggling when it comes to trying to sell his economic agenda as prices of goods have gotten higher since the U.S. and Israel started war with Iran. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that for the first time in almost 10 years, more Americans prefer Democrats to Republicans on handling the economy. And that’s bad news for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections.
But in the last few months, I will say Trump’s message hasn’t really changed much. He continues to insist that the economy is great. He says any high prices are there because he inherited it from Democrats. And he says people are making money thanks to his policies, including no taxes on tips.
FADEL: Now, you spoke with some workers in Vegas. Are policies like no-tax-on-tips popular?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I chatted with several workers in Vegas, some of whom said they did see higher tax refunds this year. But I also spoke to workers who said there are economic factors – other ones – that are making things difficult. Mario Sandoval is one of those workers. He’s been a server at Binion’s Steakhouse in downtown Las Vegas for 40 years. And he referred to himself as a tipped worker, but he put the tipped part in air quotes. And I asked him why.
MARIO SANDOVAL: I’ve experienced 9/11, 2008, the pandemic. And I have to tell you that our income right now is at the level of 9/11. It’s bad.
SHIVARAM: He says people aren’t eating out and tipping the way they used to, so he’s getting tips, but not as much. Now, any worker in Vegas will point out that June, July and August are the slower months for tourist season here, but Sandoval says his restaurant started seeing a decline last year. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, tourism did decline more than 7% in 2025. And there was a noticeable drop in visitors from Canada, which is a nationwide trend, after Trump’s soured relations with Canada over tariffs and, you know, saying that he wants to make them the 51st state.
So Trump is here plugging no-tax-on-tips as a way to put money back in people’s pockets. But there are a lot of folks in Vegas I spoke with who say that with declining tourism and higher prices, it’s not enough.
FADEL: How are Republican candidates there trying to message around Trump’s policies?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. The interesting thing I noticed while spending time here is that while Trump is on stage saying his economy is a success and at times mocking the idea of affordability, Republicans like Marty O’Donnell, who’s running for Congress in this area, are taking a little bit of a different approach. He’s trying to argue that life should be more affordable, that one job should be enough to get by. It’s actually kind of a similar argument to what Democratic candidates are saying here, too. So I found that really striking – that someone like O’Donnell, who supports President Trump, is making a pitch on stage that sounds really different than how the president talks about the economy.
FADEL: Did Trump talk at all about some of the latest primary results?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. For a speech that was billed as talking about his economic agenda, Trump spent a lot of time talking about a lot of other things, including some of the races from Tuesday night. He specifically railed against Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate who won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan. And he criticized Wisconsin’s Francesca Hong, who’s running for governor.
And Trump brought up some he’s been talking about more recently, which is how the direction of the Democratic Party, he says, is trending toward communism, which Trump says is a threat. But in his remarks, he also implied that Republicans would face off better against more left-wing Democratic candidates. And he said he thinks he’s, quote, “happy” that El-Sayed won.
FADEL: That’s NPR’s Deepa Shivaram. Thank you, Deepa.
SHIVARAM: Thank you.
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