By james art 
LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Donald Trump used a stop Saturday in Las Vegas to offer details on how he might begin excluding tips from federal taxes, betting that a city built on the gambling and hospitality industries will be happy to take home bigger pieces of tips.
Trump promises to keep a campaign promise and will give a speech at Circa Resort & Casino, according to the Culinary Union, which represents about 60,000 hospitality workers in Nevada. The union supports eliminating tip taxes, but says Trump’s proposals don’t go far enough.
His appearance is meant to energize supporters and evoke an appreciative tone. But it comes as part of a trip where Trump has already started a series of political battles.
He spent Friday seeing firsthand the storm damage and hearing harrowing stories from survivors of last fall’s Hurricane Helena in North Carolina. In Los Angeles, he watched the devastation of wildfires that may be among the costliest natural disasters in the nation’s history.
Trump toured the hard-hit areas by helicopter and walked a street where every home was reduced to charred rubble in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
The president suggested in North Carolina that he would sign an executive order to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency, leaving disaster response and recovery to affected states, with the federal government stepping in only later to help with funding.
“You are no longer forgotten. You were treated very badly by the previous administration,” Trump said of the Biden White House.
The Republican president later criticized California’s water policies and suggested that fire recovery funding be contingent on the state imposing voter identification requirements and rethinking conservation efforts.
“I’m going to be the president that helps you fix it, because he couldn’t help you fix it,” Trump said of his Democratic predecessor and the Biden team’s response to the fires.
In Nevada, by contrast, Trump said he wanted to celebrate being the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since George W. Bush in 2024: ‘I’m going to Nevada to thank them.’
This is familiar background to the discussion of tips and tax. As a candidate, Trump first floated the idea at a rally last June in Las Vegas — a proposal later copied by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Saturday’s event “will be a message focused on the economy, and President Trump will talk about the promises he intends to keep that he made to the American people on the campaign trail.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are 2.24 million restaurant servers nationwide, with tips making up a large percentage of their earnings.
In Las Vegas, the 24-hour economy is fueled by everyone from waiters and valets to hotel maids and casino dealers, all of whom collect tips. Nevada has the highest concentration of tipped workers in the country, with about 25.8 waiters and waitresses per 1,000 jobs, followed by Hawaii and Florida.
However, not paying federal taxes would likely be difficult to implement in the short term and would require an act of Congress.
Ted Papageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, said Trump’s plans “shouldn’t end” with eliminating the tax on tips.
“Eliminating tip taxes and ending the $2.13 sub-minimum wage, which is the reality in too many states across the country, will lift millions of hospitality workers,” Pappageorge said. He said many employers who know their workers are earning tips offer a flat hourly wage well below the federal minimum wage and expect tips to make up the difference.
“Taking on both issues is critical to ensuring that one job is enough for workers to support their families,” Papageorge said in a statement.