Vulnerable GOP governor snubs Trump event as Iran war tanks Nevada economy

President Donald Trump came to Las Vegas Thursday to proclaim working Nevadans are better off thanks to his policies, particularly a provision of his giant tax and spending bill that provides a tax deduction to workers earning tipped incomes.

But the Trump economy, which has been rocked by his war with Iran and its accompanying $5 a gallon gas, wasn’t impressive enough that Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo wanted to bask in it Thursday.

The vulnerable Republican governor that Nevada Democrats have dubbed Trump’s “cheerleader-in-chief” did not appear alongside him at the public event, which was held at AC Hotel in Symphony Park.

Lombardo’s campaign staff told the Nevada Current the governor would be meeting Trump separately.

In a social media post, Lombardo thanked Trump “for visiting Nevada” and “for delivering your historic promise of no tax on tips or overtime.”

The statement continued, “I look forward to meeting with President Trump during his visit, where I hope to continue our discussions on lowering costs for Nevada families, releasing more federal land for attainable housing, advancing critical solar projects, and restoring the full gaming loss deduction.”

Not appearing publicly with the president could be seen as an attempt by Lombardo to distance himself from the president claiming economic victory when the average gas price is $5 a gallon and the state’s hallmark gaming industry is grappling with a slowdown in tourism.

Nevada Democrats have long attempted to tie Lombardo to Trump’s economic policies.

Lombardo’s campaign did not respond to a request by the Current to elaborate on the decision to not appear publicly alongside the president or address how his absence in public might be interpreted.

For his part, Trump did not mention or allude to Lombardo during his remarks, which largely focused on tax policy changes made through the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Trump at one point spoke about “fake inflation” tied to fuel and oil prices.

He added, “Let’s see what happens over the next week or so. I think you’re going to be very impressed… and if you are—vote for the Republicans in the midterm!”

Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, Clark County Commissioner April Becker, and Assemblymember Lisa Cole all appeared on stage with Trump. Republicans in attendance included Assemblymembers Danielle Gallant and Jill Dickman, Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party and fake elector Michael McDonald, and Wayne Allyn Root.

State Sen. Carrie Buck and wealthy video game composer Marty O’Donnell also attended. The pair have been endorsed by Trump in their congressional races.

Trump endorsed Lombardo for re-election back in November 2025 — a full year before Election Day.

Lombardo did appear with Trump when he last visited Nevada, in January 2025, shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

Tax deduction on tipped income

The stated purpose of Trump’s visit was to herald his “no tax on tips” policy that was enacted in his giant tax and spending bill. Announced by Trump during a June 2024 rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas, the proposal as enacted in 2025 is actually a tax deduction of up to $25,000 from taxable income.

According to the U.S. Treasury, more than six million Americans have claimed the deduction, and the average deduction —$7,100 — was less than a third of the maximum allowed under the law.

According to IRS data, the average tax refund for all taxpayers as of the week ending April 3 was $3,462, compared to $3,116 on the same date in 2025. That’s an 11% increase, or an additional $346.

Similarly, under “no tax on Social Security,” Social Security income is still taxed, but some recipients are eligible to deduct $6,000 from their taxable income. And under “no tax on overtime,” workers may deduct up to $12,500 of overtime pay.

Tipped workers, however, are “vulnerable to other policy changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill that will offset the benefit of tips deduction,” according to the Center of American Progress (CAP).

For the majority of tipped worker occupations “30 percent of workers’ health care was covered by Medicaid or Affordable Care Act subsidies, and 15 percent of workers were in a household receiving SNAP,” the CAP report said, concluding that many tipped workers will “disproportionately suffer financial losses” due to program cuts and that the “net result is that tipped workers are unlikely to experience significant gains” from Trump’s OBBB.

However, the richest Americans make out well from Trump’s bill, which “delivers $1 trillion in tax cuts to the top 1 percent while cutting more than $1.1 trillion from SNAP, Medicaid and other health programs used by the poorest Americans,” CAP said.

Iran War ‘going swimmingly’

A majority of Americans blame rising gasoline prices on Trump’s Iran war.

In Las Vegas Thursday, Trump said the war “is going swimmingly,”, and that “we can do whatever we want. And it should be ending pretty soon. It was perfect. It was perfect.”

One of the costs of the war—behind the 400 American casualties and 1,701 Iranian civilians killed (254 of which were children, according to U.S. based human rights activist group HRANA)— is gas prices.

Trump’s call for calm towards the pump prices was defended by his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who shifted blame of increased gas prices away from the war in Iran to California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a press scrum before the roundtable.

The rest of the country, Bessent said, is not feeling the same level of pain as Nevadans are due to the state being tied to the “energy policies of Gavin Newsom.”

Nevada is captive to the West Coast gasoline market, where price of gas tends to be roughly 20% higher than the rest of the country. Gas prices have spiked to more than $4 a gallon nationally, which has little if anything to do with California.

“Prices are coming down, and, I think, this summer we are going to see prices get back to normal,” Bessent said.

That assessment differs from one made by Trump’s Department of Energy. In a report earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Information Agency projected that due to the disruptions created by the Iran war, gasoline would remain high not only through the rest of this year, but into 2027.

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