On Saturday night, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to eliminate the tax on tips for service providers if she wins the November election.
Her announcement sparked fury from Donald Trump, who accused her of stealing his idea after he made the same promise in June when a Nevada waiter told him she thought the government was taking too much of her tips.
But an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com shows why Harris is unfazed by accusations of theft: the policy is hugely popular with voters.
Nearly two-thirds of likely voters say they support the idea.
And it is popular across all demographics and groups. Trump voters, white voters, Hispanic voters, Harris voters, young and old, college graduates and non-college graduates all support the idea of eliminating the tip tax.
JL Partners surveyed 1,054 likely voters from August 8-9, finding that Donald Trump’s two major tax proposals are overwhelmingly popular
That sentiment minimizes the negative consequences of copying an opponent’s proposal, said James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, which conducted a poll of 1,054 likely voters last week.
“It turns out there’s a reason Harris stole Trump’s tip tax policy: It’s wildly popular with the public.
“It has support from every age group, gender, race, regardless of political affiliation. For the American public, they look at the idea and think it’s a no-brainer.
“If Trump had kept it for himself, he could have used it as a real electoral asset. Now its relevance has come from the race.”
Trump’s two big tax proposals are wildly popular. Eliminating the tip tax and Social Security payments are the kind of populist moves that resonate with voters, even as economists warn they would leave a black hole in the federal budget.
On Saturday, a day after the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Harris, she announced at a rally at the University of Nevada, a state where tipped workers hold the power, that she was following in Trump’s footsteps.
“I promise everyone here that when I’m president, we’ll continue to stand up for working families, including by raising the minimum wage and eliminating the tip tax for service and hospitality workers,” she said.
The move is not without problems.
A campaign aide later said that would mean working with Congress to introduce legislation that would set income limits on tax-free tips and prevent other workers from adjusting their pay in ways that would allow them to abuse them.
The policy is popular with voters from all groups
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held dueling rallies on Saturday, with Harris using her rally to pledge to end the tip tax for service industry workers
Trump lashed out at Harris on his Truth Social website, calling the proposal a “Trump idea”
MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump Super PAC, is offering stickers to promote Donald Trump’s new promise to increase the tip tax after diners shared receipts on which they had written in support of the policy to help workers who rely on tips
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance signs the check that reads “no tax on tips!!” as he leaves $200 cash for a tip at the Park Diner, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Waite Park, Minnesota.
Still, Trump quickly took to social media to criticize Harris for stealing his idea.
“The difference is she won’t do it, she just wants to do it for political purposes!” he wrote, using his idiosyncratic style of capitalization.
“This was TRUMP’s idea. She has no ideas, all she can do is steal from me.”
Harris has overtaken Trump in the polls after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. A rolling average of surveys tracked by the statistics website FiveThirtyEight gives her a lead of more than two points over her Republican opponent.
She has also outpaced him in the betting markets, with Oddspedia reporting on Monday that the numbers give her a 52.4 percent chance of winning, compared to his 47.6 percent.