Trump Says 'No Taxes On Tips' Was His Idea. It Was A GOP Candidate's Proposal Years Ago
Former President Donald Trump took to social media late Saturday night to claim that he came up with an idea to end taxes on tips despite another Republican candidate proposing such a policy over a decade ago.
Trump, in a rant on his Truth Social platform, called Vice President Kamala Harris a “COPYCAT” and shared a screenshot of a right-wing social media account that accused her of having “plagiarized directly” from him.
The vice president, at a Las Vegas rally on Saturday, promised to eliminate taxes on tips paid to service and hospitality workers which her GOP rival similarly proposed back in June.
“This was a TRUMP idea — She has no ideas, she can only steal from me,” claimed the former president in one post.
He continued in another post, “Kamala has no imagination, whatsoever, as shown by the fact that she played ‘COPYCAT’ with, NO TAXES ON TIPS!”
The alleged “TRUMP idea” arrives years after ex-Republican presidential candidate and former Rep. Ron Paul, in a Jan. 2012 op-ed, called it an “outrage” that wait staff and other service workers had to pay taxes on tips they earned on the clock.
The ex-Texas lawmaker, in 2007 and years thereafter, introduced legislation in Congress that looked to exempt tips from federal income and payroll taxes.
“That’s because I understand ending taxes on tips will give these workers a pay raise, letting them keep more money to put toward things like a house or car payment, their retirement, or their own and/or their children’s education,” wrote Paul in the Las Vegas Sun op-ed.
Congressional records also show that at least one other lawmaker has called for no taxes on tips as former Rep. Phil Crane (R-Ill.) pushed the proposal back in 1982.
HuffPost reached out to the Trump campaign,