TRANSCRIPT: President Trump Remarks At ‘No Tax On Tips’ Event in Las Vegas

And this week alone, I took nearly 350 executive actions to reverse the horrible failures and betrayals that we inherited from a group of people that didn’t know what the hell they were doing, what they’ve done to this country, especially the open borders, where they have, think of it, 21 million people came in. Many of them are criminals, murderers. Well, we’re getting them out. You see it. You see it yesterday. First step.

Our message could not be more clear. America’s decline is over. American decline is over. We’re laughed at all over the world. Now, we’re not laughed at anymore, I’ll tell you.

What the world witnessed this week is nothing less than a revolution of wealth creation for everyone and also common sense. It’s about common sense. It really is. We’re the party of common sense.

On day one, I directed every member of my cabinet to… And by the way, Pete Hegseth got approved. And Kristi Noem just got approved, Governor. She’s going to keep it. She’s a tough one. She’s a tough one. And she’s going to do a great job.

On day one, I directed every member of my cabinet to marshal all powers at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring down the cost of daily life. We want to bring prices down. Too high. They went way up. They didn’t come down.

I imposed a federal hiring freeze, a federal regulation freeze, a foreign aid freeze. Oh, that’s a nice one. And I created the new Department of Government Efficiency. And we’re going to have a lot of good people. Elon. We’re going to get Elon Musk to get involved in that a little bit. He already is. People like him.

Environmental and Economic Policies

I terminated the ridiculous and incredibly wasteful Green New Deal scam. Wasn’t the environment supposed to eat us up like in 12 years? But that was like 13 years ago. What happened? We’re still here. We’re still here. Remember, we have 12 years to live. Remember that? Done by somebody that never even took a course on the environment. AOC plus three. Do you remember those two? They were telling us about the environment. AOC plus three.

This action alone will save hundreds of billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money. I withdrew from the one-sided Paris Climate Accords. And I canceled the insane and costly electric vehicle mandate. Keeping my sacred pledge to America’s autoworkers. Boy, did we get a big vote with the autoworkers out there. And the Teamsters. Any Teamsters in the room? We got a tremendous vote from the Teamsters. Thank you. One dollar. But they voted for us in the millions. So we have a lot of Teamsters voting for us.

They withdrew from the World Health Organization. Where we paid $500 million a year and China paid $39 million a year, despite a much larger population. Think of that. China is paying $39 million to have 1.4 billion people. We pay $500 million. We have nobody knows what the hell we have. Does anyone know? We have so many people pouring in. We have no idea. We go up, but we’re going down a little bit now. You don’t mind that, do you? Going to take some bad ones out.

I withdrew four years ago, but Biden immediately went back for even more money. I mean, he went back and, you know, they offered me a $39 million. They said, we’ll let you back in at $39 million. So we’re going to reduce it from $500 to $39 million. I turned them down because it became so popular. I didn’t know if it would be well received even at $39 million. But maybe we would consider doing it again. I don’t know. Maybe we would. They have to clean it up a little bit.

But China pays $39 million for 1.4 billion, and we’re paying $500 million for 325 million. I don’t know. What the hell is wrong with these people? And then when Biden went back in, you know, they immediately went back in. They paid more than we were paying in the first place. They paid more than the $500 million. So they knew they could have had it for $39 million. They paid more. You wouldn’t do that, Joe, right? Now think of it. They know they have a deal at $39 million. So they went back in at $525 million. What the hell? Man, oh, man. It just infuriates you, doesn’t it?

Energy and Deregulation

I declared a national energy emergency to unlock the liquid gold under our feet and paved the way for rapid approvals of the new energy infrastructure. The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, that we may be a very substantially enlarged country in the natural distance. Isn’t it nice to see, you know, for years, for decades, we’re the same size to the square foot. Probably got smaller, actually. But we might be an enlarged country pretty soon. And one of the things we’re going to be doing is drill, baby, drill. Because that’s going to bring everything down. It’s going to bring everything down.

My administration has also begun the largest deregulation campaign in the history of our country. Far exceeding. I had the record for you. We had a great economy, the greatest economy that we’ve ever had four years ago. But this is going to be better. You watch.

Continuing Success

This will be better even than the first term. And the reason I got elected was because of the first term. You know, somebody said, “What was the reason you got elected? I mean, you won by so much.” I said, “My first term.” You know. That’s all I did. I just said, “Well, take a look at the numbers.” Take a look at the numbers.

In total, the Biden administration imposed $50,000 in additional regulation costs on the average American. And think of this. The average American was paying much more than $50,000. And, you know, just think of it. Nobody can even believe the numbers.

I promised to eliminate 10 old regulations for every new regulation. If we put in a regulation, we have to get rid of 10. That’s what I did. I did it one in seven. We’re going to do one in 10 this time, which will soon put many thousands of dollars back into your pockets, in the pockets of American families.

As a result of the reforms, we’ve just begun to implement economic confidence, and it’s soaring.

Economic Investments

So this week, Oracle opened AI and SoftBank announced Stargate, a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure, which is going to be very big for Nevada, I have to tell you, the largest in history, and which will create an estimated 100,000 American jobs.

Saudi Arabia just said that they’re going to invest at least $600 billion, just because of the election, by the way. And I believe they’ll make it a trillion. I’m going to ask them to make it one trillion. What the hell? The money means nothing to them. You know where they made their money? From liquid gold, right? They’ve got a lot of liquid gold. We have more. We have more than Saudi Arabia. They’ve got a lot. We’ve got more. We’ve got more than anybody. We just don’t use it because of the environment. These people are crazy.

And many other companies, likewise, are looking to invest, but I don’t have enough time to do that. And we have a lot of news conferences. Everybody wants to have a news conference. You know, they’re calling up by the hundreds. “We want to have a news conference. We’re going to invest $12.” I said, “No, I don’t do that.” I said, “It’s got to be $1 billion or more for a news conference. $1 billion or more.”

Just two days ago, because of our tariff plans, Stellantis announced, that’s a very good automobile company, the revival of its Belvidere, Illinois, plant, saving 1,500 American auto jobs that were previously headed to Canada, along with major investments to expand American auto production in Detroit, Michigan, Toledo, Ohio, and Kokomo, Indiana. Good place.

All of these investments are happening only because of our historic victory. And if we didn’t win, it would be just the opposite. They’re pulling out. They were pulling out. They were really pulling out. So they would be withdrawing money. Our country was on the verge of some very bad things, and bad things were happening.

Global Impact

And now there’s light not only over America. I’ve heard it from even our enemies. They call up and they say, “Sir, we hate you. We do hate you, but there’s light over the world right now.” They hate me. Some of them hate me. If they like me, you’ve got a problem, right? They like Sleepy Joe. What’s not to like?

You know, they’d call up. It’s funny. I was told today by one of the big leaders of the world would call for a telephone call with the President of the United States a year ago. And they’d say, “We’d like to speak with, who is this?” It’s the head of Germany, the head of, name it, the head of France. The name of any country, it didn’t matter. He would never pick up the call. They’d say, “He’ll call you back in two months.” Two months. “Yeah, it’s the schedule. He’s extremely busy sleeping.”

Macron of France. “He’ll call you back in two months.” So two months comes along and there’s no call. They’d say, “He didn’t call.” The stories are, I mean, these stories are not very exaggerated. I want to tell you, they’re a little bit, a little bit for laughter. But, you know, it’s only for laughter. The fake news will say, “Oh, he exaggerated. It was only one month,” you know.

But they’ll say, “He’ll call you back.” And then he’d never call. And then they could never get him on the phone. And the problem I have is that when I speak to them, and I speak to them immediately, they’ll say, “Could we speak to the president? Would that be possible? We could do it any time over the next month.” They’re so used to this, right? I say, “No, I’ll pick it up right now. Is he on the phone?” “Yeah, hello. How you doing?” That’s what, you know, get it. Get it over with, right? Get it over with.

The only problem, they were so starved for love from the United States, I cannot get them off the phone. I can’t get people to be hit. I say, “I have to go now, king,” or “I have to go now, president.” But you can’t get them off the phone. They’re starved for love. You know, for years they haven’t spoken. They didn’t even know we had a president, if you want to know.

America’s Resurgence

But under our leadership, America is back open for business. And it’s really a big deal. It’s really a big deal. And they have, though. They said, you know, there’s like a light all over the world now. It’s not just here. We feel the light over our country. Everyone does. But there’s a light all over the world.

We’ve accomplished more in one week than other administrations have accomplished in four years. And we’re just getting started. We got rid of the woke. We got rid of the woke crap. What a lot of crap that was. And, you know, these people were petrified of it. I’ll tell you, these companies that run these big companies, they were petrified of it. It was like, you know, I don’t think they believed it. I’m sure they didn’t believe it. Some I know didn’t believe it, but they were so afraid.

Tax Cuts and Economic Agenda

Near the top of the agenda for our historic Republican majorities in Congress is to pass a massive tax cut for American workers and families. Last year, we campaigned across the country in a pledge that I’m sure most of you didn’t hear too much about, a pledge to take the Trump tax cuts and make them permanent. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be working with Congress to get a bill on my desk that cuts taxes for workers, families, small businesses, and very importantly, keeps my promise for a thing called, and I know you didn’t hear anything about this, and I’m sure it had no influence on the state, the fact that we won this crazy massive majority, a state that hadn’t been won by a Republican in decades, but I’m sure you haven’t heard, but we’re going to get it for you. No tax on tips. No tax on tips.

So if you’re a restaurant worker, a server, a valet, a bellhop, a bartender, or one of my caddies, I go through caddies like candy. If I play badly, I always blame my caddy. Or any other worker who relies on tipped income, your tips will be 100 percent yours.

What about the money? Joe, Governor, do you think that had an impact on the election? You do? Like what, a half a point? Pretty big. You had an impact, let me tell you.

Nationwide, over 4 million workers depend on tipped income, including an estimated 700,000 single moms. And here in Nevada, we will have a quarter. Think of it. A quarter of the typical restaurant workers’ pay comes from tips. I didn’t know that much. That’s a lot. You haven’t been reporting them for the last 10 years.

So here’s our deal. We’re going to have no tax on tips from now on, but we’re going to go after you viciously for all the money you didn’t report for the last 10, 15. We’re going to go after you for all the money you didn’t report for. I’m only kidding. I’m only kidding. I have to say to the fake news, because they’re going to say, “Trump is after all. Trump is after all restaurant workers.”

Many of these workers are some of the very citizens who were hit hard and very hard by the ravages of the Biden economy, which was inflation. When I think of Biden, I think of incompetence and inflation. I’m being nice when I say that.

Yet even in the midst of the suffering he created, Joe Biden launched a cruel campaign to extract more money from tip workers. And that’s what happened.

I’m telling you, a young waitress. I won’t say beautiful because you’re not allowed to say that as a politician. It used to be you could say a young, beautiful waitress. This was a young, beautiful waitress, but I won’t say that because I feel like I want to continue my political career. If you call, if you call some, the governor won’t say it, if you call a woman beautiful today, it’s the end of your political career, so I won’t do it.

But a young waitress, I think you could call young. You’re probably not even supposed to say young. Probably supposed to say a waitress. But a young waitress came up and I said, “How are you doing?” And in my restaurant, in the hotel, Trump, I said, “How are you doing?” And she said, “Not great, because they’re after me so viciously for tips. They just want my tip income and they don’t believe me and all of this.” And she said, “It’s terrible. You know, sir, you should have no tax on tips.”

I said, “What did you just say?” “No tax on tips.” That was about the amount of my consultation. No tax. I said, “What did you just say? Say those words again.” “Sir, no tax on tips.” I said, “Thank you very much. You just won the election.” No, but no, we did research into it. I think it’s going to be great.

Forgotten No More

But under the Trump administration, the forgotten men and women of our country are going to be forgotten no longer. You know that. They weren’t forgotten four years ago.

On day one, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. You know, they hired, they hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 new workers to go after you. And we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we’ll move them to the border. I think we’re going to move them to the border. Well, they’re allowed to carry guns. You know, they’re so strong on guns, but these people are allowed to carry guns, so we’ll probably move them to the border.

Yeah. She said, “No tax on them.” How about just no tax? You can do that. You know, if the tariffs worked out like I think, a thing like that could happen, if you want to know the truth.

You know, years ago, 1870 to 1913, we didn’t have an income tax. We had, what we had is tariffs, where foreign countries came in and they stole our jobs, they stole our companies, they stole our product, they ripped us off.

Economic History and Tariffs

And, you know, they used to do numbers. And then we went to tariff, a tariff system. And the tariff system made so much money. It was when we were the richest, from 1870 to 1913. And then we came in with the, brilliantly came in with an income tax. No, we don’t want others to pay. Let’s have our people pay. And then you had the Depression in 1928, 1929. I call it 1929. That was a bad time. But, you know, you didn’t have tariffs. And you had tariffs that ended in 1913. I mean, but it’s, it was the richest our country ever was.

It was President McKinley. In fact, we’re renaming the mountain, Mount McKinley. You know what else we’re renaming? We’re renaming the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America. And Mexico, actually, they were thrilled when they heard. They said, “That’s nice.”

Tax Cuts and Worker Benefits

A few months from now, when I sign our tax cut into law, we’re going to deliver for the tip-earning men and women who make it all work. I mean, it’s going to be something very special, I think, for you. It’s going to be a big, a big difference.

And with us today is Jessica Angiano, an employee here at Circa. This is a nice place, by the way. And I just met your owner. He’s a nice man. He’s rich, too. Very, very nice. But Circa’s very nice. And a hardworking single mother of two with incredible children. Jessica’s struggling to pay for medical bills to remove a tumor behind her right eye. She had some real difficulty. And she’s currently saving up for a second surgery, which will hopefully be very successful. While also paying for children’s daycare, Jessica says that no tax on tips would transform her life. It would make such a big difference.

So, Jessica, we’re going to get that for you. Where are you, Jessica? You’re around here someplace, huh? Hi, Jessica. Oh, so beautiful. Very nice. Working out medically good? Everything good? Going to be good. Thanks, Jessica. You look fantastic. It’s good. You look great.

Also with us is Lexi York, a 28-year-old cocktail server here at Circa, who’s got big dreams of being an entrepreneur. Lexi says that no tax on tips will help bring those dreams much closer to reach. And she’s going to be one of the biggest proponents for it. We’re going to have a lot of support when we go before Congress very soon to get that passed. Lexi, where are you? Where are you? Hi, Lexi. Good. We’ll get it done.

Hotel Industry Support

And we’re also pleased to be joined by Rosanna Maietta, President and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which strongly supports this pro-worker reform. And, Rosanna, would you like to come up and say a few words on behalf of so many people? Come on up. Come on up.

“Hello, Mr. President. And on behalf of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, I’m so honored to be here today. We represent 30,000 members around the country in an industry that represents more than two million hotel workers. And I’m here to tell you that the American dream is alive and well in the hotel industry today. It is still one of the few places where you can have and grow your career starting a job as a housekeeper or a dishwasher or bellhop to running a hotel, to owning a hotel or a few, and to even becoming the CEO of a global brand or president of the United States.

Mr. President, in 2017, the tax bill that you championed cut taxes for so many working families and American workers. It helped small businesses, small hotel owners in our country who make up the majority of the industry, reinvest in the economy, spurring jobs, and growing and strengthening the economy. And the no tax on tips builds on that momentum. And so we are so excited to support you in that effort. That’s why we’re here today. We stand with you to urge Congress to pass this proposal so that more than the 800,000 hotel workers who benefit from these, from tips, many who are here in the room today representing all types of jobs, from restaurant workers to housekeepers to bellhops and so many others, can take home more of the pay that they earn every day. So thank you for having us and for promoting this proposal.”

Thank you very much, Jessica. Great.

Putting America First

After four long years, and these were long years of a government that always put you last. They put America last. They put you last. They put everybody last that was associated with us. You once again have a president who’s putting our workers first, putting our families first, and above all, putting America first. And we’re going to keep America first.

Can you see it? We’re restoring our prosperity. We’re restoring our borders. We’re restoring our strength, our dignity, and our pride. We’ve been hurt badly by this group of people. This group of people, they didn’t have a clue what the hell was happening. It’s so disgraceful that they were allowed to do it. But quite honestly, we’re restoring our country.

Border Security and Immigration

Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency at our southern border. I sent active-duty troops to the border to help repel the invasion. Tom Holman is leading the charge. You know that? We like Tom Holman, right? Doing a great job.

We immediately halted all illegal entry and began sending every border, trespasser, and violator back to the places from which they came. I signed an order that will designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. It’s a big deal. That’s a big deal. Biden didn’t want to do that. No, I don’t want to do that. Biden didn’t know he was alive. He didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to do that. I always wanted to do it, you know? I mean, think of it. Is that a terrorist organization or what?

And we began to leverage the full and immense power of federal government and state government and enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to American soil. And we don’t allow people to enter our country and to dump their prisons into the United States of America anymore. When we see that, our people are instructed to do whatever they have to do. They can do whatever the hell they want to do.

And throughout this week, the heroes of ICE have been hunting down and arresting hundreds of illegal alien criminals. And its immediate expulsion, including those with charges of convictions for rape, child sexual assault, terrorism, and even murder. Members of the savage Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua. You know that gang? This is not a nice group of people. They formed in prison. And then they dumped their prisons into our country.

So we had them. We had them all over the place. Ask Colorado. The governor of Colorado, he doesn’t know what to do about it, that all over the place, we’ll get them out. We’ll get them out. They’re, in a sense, they’re in the real estate business. They go into a building and they take it, you know? See, when you buy a building, you have to go out and get a mortgage or use your own cash. They just go into a building and take it, and they actually said, “Well, it’s not that bad. They haven’t taken that many buildings.” Can you imagine them? They haven’t taken that many buildings. Oh, they’re not that bad. But they’re as bad as the bloodthirsty MS-13 gangs that we have gotten thousands and thousands of them out.

In fact, over 11,000 murderers were released into our country by other countries all over the world because of Biden’s open border policy. And when I heard about that, I said, they’re just going to, everybody’s going to empty out their prisons into our country. I said that. I’d do that if I were heading up any one of the many countries that you know about, not just South America, all over. They take their prisons and mental institutions and they empty them out into our country. Can you imagine a person doing this? Can you imagine somebody doing that to our country?

Liberation and Government Reform

For American citizens, January 20th, 2025, was truly Liberation Day. That was really Liberation Day. This week, I also signed an order to end the weaponization of our government against American people and political people like me. We never had a thing like that. He went after his political opponent. Who would have thought he helped to me? I think he helped me get elected, Joe. You want to know the truth? I became much more popular. I’m the only guy that ever became more popular when something like that happened. But these guys were just so inept.

We had the guy deranged Jack Smith. Deranged. He was a deranged German man. But they thought this way Biden could sneak by and he could win an election. Another cheating in another election. That’s what it was. But we won. We won. Do you think that was fun? Do you think that was easy? It wasn’t fun.

And investigate all of the abuses of power. I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners who had been viciously persecuted by the Biden regime. Hundreds of people were persecuted, including Christians, pro-life activists, to Washington, D.C. police officers, to the police officers, to the police officers, whose lives were destroyed from chasing down a dangerous, illegal alien criminal. And, of course, I was very proud to pardon the J-6 hospital.

Once and for all, I stopped government censorship, and we brought back free speech in America. We brought it back. We did more of this last week. People can’t even believe it.

I also signed an order to declassify and publish all remaining files related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

I signed an order that will end all of the lawless diversity, equity, and inclusion nonsense. All across the government and the private sector, we abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order, all approved by the United States Supreme Court. We’re allowed to do it because we are now in a merit-based world. We’re a merit-based country. Did you ever think you were going to hear that again? It’s based on merit. If you’ve got the talent, if you’ve got the work, the ethic, the whole thing, it’s based now on, it’s not based on any other thing. It’s based on merit. It’s based on your capability.

The United States has now become, again, a meritocracy. Isn’t that a beautiful word, a meritocracy? Based on merit, if you do your job well, you’re going to go places.

And I made it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. Male and female.

Promises and Progress

Every single day of my term, we’re living by the motto, promises made, promises kept. I kept my promises. Why we won. It really is why we won. We won because of the past four years. We won because of that. But this is going to blow it away. Because when I came in, I had no experience. I didn’t do this before. I never did this. I was never a politician before.

I was talking J.D. Vance. By the way, hasn’t he done a great job? J.D. Vance. Because J.D. went right to the Senate, and then he went to the Vice President and said, J.D., you’re really upwardly mobile. He said, “You’re more so than me.” I said, “Why do you say that?” He said, “You went from being a real estate developer to the President.” That’s a pretty big, that’s a pretty bad, never thought of it that way. I guess I’m the most upwardly mobile politician in history. I didn’t make any stops along the way.

It will be the greatest honor of my life to serve, not once, but twice, or three times, or four times, now. Headlines. Headlines from the fake news. Now, it will be to serve twice.

For the next four years, I will not rest. I will not yield. And together, we will not fail. We will win, win, win. We will bring back the American dream. We’re going to bring it back. You know, in recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to make it great again, greater than ever before.

We’ll be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. That’s what we’re doing, and that’s what it’s all about. And you see that, I think you see it more in the last week than you’ve seen it in years.

And I walked up the stairs of that massive plane that’s waiting for me, that big 747, and I said, there’s no way I’m going to let myself fall, because that was, that was one hell of a… That triple fall was a disaster. I would call that a political disaster. You can fall once, you can fall twice, but you can’t fall three times. You can’t fall three times. I’ve used that in every ad I think I ever did.

A Vision for America’s Future

Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that’s been angry, violent, and very unpredictable. America will be respected again and admired again, including by the people of religion, faith, and goodwill. We’re bringing back religion in this country.

We will be prosperous. We will be free. We will be bigger, bolder, and more ambitious than ever before. And together we will make America powerful again. Make America wealthy again. Make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. Make America proud again. We’re going to make America safe again. And we will make America great again.

Thank you very much. And thank you very much, Nevada. Thank you, Joe. Thank you.

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