Former President Donald Trump is attempting to reinvent himself in the 2024 cycle by embracing economic populism. But Democrats are warning voters to not be taken in, pointing to his pat record of empty promises.
According to a Semafor report from Friday, Trump's promise to eliminate taxes on tips for workers in the service industry has raised eyebrows, with several Republican members of Congress indicating support for it. This is especially relevant to younger voters, who are much more likely to work in jobs where the bulk of their income is reliant on customer tips.
Trump's proposal to ease taxes on tips fits neatly into his economic populist pitch of pledging to lower prices on household goods and staving off inflation. However, Democrats are pointing out that Trump never once brought up that policy during his four years as president, and instead passed a $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited multinational corporations and the wealthiest Americans.
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"[V]oters aren’t holding their breath that any of the many fake promises Donald Trump makes will come to fruition," said Pat Dennis, who is president of the Democratic-aligned group American Bridge. "We’re working to make sure voters remember Trump is a con artist, obsessed with gaining power, who will say anything to return to the White House."
Trump's pitch to voters that he would be better for lower-income workers, like those who depend on tips, is also not rooted in fact when looking at the data from his presidency compared to President Joe Biden's administration. According to data compiled by the St. Louis Federal Reserve, most of the economic gains under Biden have gone toward poorer workers.
In fact, the net worths of the poorest half of Americans was up roughly two-thirds in the third quarter of 2023 (the latest available data) compared to 2019. And the Center for American Progress found in April that the average wealth of younger workers — like the kind who would be affected by Trump's proposal to cut taxes on tips — has seen a drastic 49% increase in the 4th quarter of 2023 compared to the 4th quarter of 2019. The metrics typically used to measure the health of the economy all point to Americans, particularly in lower income brackets, doing much better under Biden than under Trump.
The New Republic's Timothy Noah wrote that Trump's flavor of economic populism is still deferential to big business, and noted that he asks very little in the way of sacrifice from the private sector.
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"When Trump finally gets around to proposing a tax policy that might have some appeal for working-class voters, he does so not by requiring employers to pay workers a living wage but rather by requiring the federal government to take up the slack," Noah wrote.
Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Michigan), who sits on the influential House Ways and Means Committee (whose jurisdiction covers taxes) also scoffed at Trump's proposed new tax cut.
“No one actually believes that the former president cares about tax policy,” Kildee told Semafor. “Donald Trump has proven he will say or do anything to be elected president.”
Click here to read Semafor's full report.
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