Thursday, April 16, 2026 | 2 a.m.
Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
President Donald Trump returns to Las Vegas today to tout his No Tax on Tips policy, a feature included in the One Big Beautiful Bill passed in 2025 that allows service workers to deduct up to $25,000 in tips from federal income taxes.
But as Trump seeks to promote the policy during a roundtable discussion downtown, small businesses like Mothership Coffee Roasters worry fewer people even have disposable income to spend or tip.
Founded in 2012, Mothership has become one of Las Vegas’ premier coffee destinations, with multiple valley locations and beans sourced from women-owned farms. Yet CEO and founder Juanny Romero said foot traffic at Mothership’s shop in Fergusons Downtown has dropped about 40% over the past 18 months, a decline she attributes to Trump-era economic policies.
“When small businesses thrive, they give back to the community,” she said, noting that many missing customers are Canadian tourists.
Trump’s visit comes amid a sharp tourism slowdown. Las Vegas visitation fell 7.5% in 2025 to roughly 38.5 million people — its lowest since 2021 — with June logging an 11.3% year-over-year drop. Democratic lawmakers have dubbed the downturn the “Trump slump,” citing tariffs and tighter immigration enforcement that discourage cross-border travel from Canada and Mexico.
“Here’s a tip: You might want to spend this time explaining to Nevadans how you plan to reverse your disastrous economic policies that have taken a toll on Nevada’s tourism industry, small businesses, and hospitality workers,” U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., wrote on social media ahead of Trump’s visit.
Trump is promoting the No Tax on Tips policy to coincide with Tax Day, including a widely publicized stunt Monday in which he ordered McDonald’s to the White House via DoorDash. The delivery was made by Sharon Simmons — a 58-year-old grandmother of 10 from Fayetteville, Ark. — who arrived at the White House wearing a “DoorDash Grandma” T-shirt. Simmons had appeared at a House Ways and Means Committee field hearing July 25, 2025, at YESCO in Las Vegas, saying the No Tax on Tips policy in the One Big Beautiful Bill would benefit her financially.
Trump celebrated the delivery as emblematic of what he calls “tremendous amounts of money” going back to workers.
While a tax break on tips may sound like relief, critics contend it does little for workers whose paychecks are being squeezed by higher costs brought on by the president’s policies. In Nevada, tipped workers already earn the full state minimum wage of $12 an hour before tips, so the issue is not just how tips are taxed — it’s whether wages, after gas, rent and groceries, are enough to keep up.
For DoorDash drivers and other gig workers, fuel costs can quickly eat into earnings, turning a tax deduction into a narrow benefit rather than a real solution.
Responding to a reporter’s question Tuesday, Simmons acknowledged as much. “Obviously gas prices, they hit us all. It’s not just us; it’s everybody,” she said.
That is the disconnect Trump is likely to face in Las Vegas: a promise to protect tips in a city where too many workers are struggling to make their pay stretch far enough.
Nevada Democrats argue the program masks deeper economic troubles.
“Trump’s visit to Las Vegas to celebrate ‘No Tax on Tips’ is not a celebration for workers,” Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said. “When tips dip, paychecks shrink and families feel it immediately.”
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and local advocates scheduled a press call at the same time as Trump’s roundtable today where they’re expected to criticize the affordability crisis she and other Democrats attribute to Trump and congressional Republicans.
Trump hasn’t visited Nevada since January 2025, when he also was touting his “No Tax on Tips” policy.
He will be greeted by protesters downtown who will “voice opposition to harmful economic policies, including tariffs, the war on Iran, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” according to Battle Born Progress, the group organizing the rally.
“Donald Trump is heading to Nevada as gas prices blow past $5 a gallon and families paid more than $1,700 thanks to his illegal tariffs,” the Nevada State Democratic Party wrote on social media.
