A Las Vegas waiter is feeling the negative effects of Trump’s policies

las vegas – Aaron Mahan is a lifelong Republican who voted for Donald Trump twice.

He had high hopes of putting a businessman in the White House, and although he found the president’s monstrous ego amusing, Mahan voted for his reelection. Out of party loyalty, he added.

By 2024, however, he will have had enough.

“I just saw a lot of bad qualities, a lot of ego,” said Mahan, who has worked as a food server on the Las Vegas Strip for decades. “And I felt like she was going to stay out of jail at least partially.”

Mahan couldn’t bring himself to support Kamala Harris. He has never endorsed a Democrat for president. So when he got sick on election day, it was a good excuse to stay in bed and not vote.

Mahan said he doesn’t hate Trump. “I don’t think he’s evil.” Instead, the 52-year-old calls himself the “real Trump,” seeing the good and the bad.

Here’s Mahan’s truth: a big drop in pay. Decreasing his emergency savings. Stress every time he enters a gas station or goes to a supermarket.

Mahan rudely threw things at his tenant. “Now,” he said, “you have to look at the prices, because everything is so expensive.”

In short, he’s living in the worst combination of inflation and economic disaster since he started waiting tables after graduating high school.

The 47th president’s views, from the ground

Las Vegas lives on tourism, an industry fed by rivers of disposable income. The decline of both has led to a painful decline that will further damage demand for sustainability after the Covid-19 shutdown and years to go.

Over the past 12 months, the number of visitors has decreased significantly and those who come to Las Vegas are spending less. Passenger arrivals at Harry Reid International Airport, a short hop from the strip, are down and room nights, hotel occupancy rates are also down.

Mahan, who works at Virgin Resorts Casino, blames Trump’s failure in large part on inflation, his tariffs and tough immigration and foreign policies that have alienated people — and potential audiences — around the world.

“His general attitude is, ‘I’m going to do what I’m going to do, and you’re going to like it or leave it.’ And they let it go,” Mahan said. Canadians don’t come, Mexicans don’t come. Europeans don’t come the way they did. But the people of Southern California don’t come the way they did either.

Mahan has a way of explaining the shocking blow to the Las Vegas economy. He calls it “the fall of Trump.”

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Mahan was an Air Force mate who lived all over the United States and for a time in England before his father retired from the military and started looking for a place to live.

Mahan’s mother grew up in Sacramento and loved the hills that called Las Vegas. They reminded her of the Sierra Nevada. Mahan’s father worked constantly as a bartender. This was a skill of great use in Nevada’s vast hospitality industry.

So it was a desert city.

Mahan was 15 when his family bought the land. After high school, he attended college for a time and started working in the coffee shop at the Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino. He then went to the great gourmet room. The money was good; Mahan had found his vocation.

From there he moved to Circus Circus and then, in 2005, to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, where he has been ever since. (In 2018, Virgin Hotels acquired Hard Rock.)

Mahan, who is single with no children, has learned to adapt to changes in the hospitality business. “As a food server, there’s always slack and takeoff,” he said over lunch at a dim sum restaurant in a Las Vegas strip mall.

Mahan took bucks during the summer months and hunted during the slow times, before things started to pick up around New Year’s. He faced the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009, when Nevada led the nation in foreclosures, bankruptcies abounded and tumbleweeds exploded in the overbuilt, financially underwater suburbs of Las Vegas.

This economy feels very bad.

Over the past 12 months, Las Vegas has attracted fewer visitors and those who have come are spending less.

(David Baker/For The Times)

With tourism winding down, the hotel where Mahan works changed from a full-service coffee shop to a limited-hours buffet. So he is no longer waiting tables. Instead, he makes the windows to go, makes the drinks and serves the food to the guests, which brings him very little in tips. He estimates that his income has dropped by $2,000 a month.

But it’s not just that his wages have grown significantly. They don’t go nearly as far.

Gasoline. the egg meat “Everything costs more,” Mahan said.

A soda addict, he used to eat Dr. Pepper. “You’ll get three bottles for four bucks,” Mahan said. “Now they’re $3 each.”

He was cut as a result.

Worse, his air conditioner broke last month and the $14,000 Mahan spent replacing it — along with an expensive filter he needs for allergies — wiped out his emergency fund.

It feels like Mahan is having a hard time and he is not at all optimistic that everything will get better soon.

“I’m looking forward to the day Trump leaves office,” he said.

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Mahan considers himself very apolitical. Instead of discussing the latest events in Washington, he is kicking a tennis ball around.

He likes some of the things Trump has done, like securing the border with Mexico — even though Mahan isn’t looking for landscapers and tamale vendors in a fancy immigration operation.

He’s happy about the no-tax-on-tips provisions in the big legislative package passed last spring, though, “I’m still taxed at the same rate and now there’s no extra money coming in.” He waits to see what happens when he files his tax return next year.

He doesn’t count on much. “I’m never convinced of anything,” Mahan said. “Until I see it.”

Something else was going on in the back of his mind.

Mahan is a store manager with the Culinary Union, a powerhouse labor organization that helped make Las Vegas one of the few places in the country where a waiter, like Mahan, can earn enough to buy a house in a high-end neighborhood like Henderson’s. (He points out that he bought it in 2012 and probably can’t afford it in today’s economy.)

Mahan worries that once Trump targets immigrants, federal workers and Democratic-run cities, he will come after organized labor, damaging a fundamental building block that has helped the middle class rise.

“He’s a businessman and a lot of businessmen don’t like dealing with unions,” Mahan said.

There are a few bright spots in the Las Vegas economic picture. Convention bookings are up slightly for the year, and appear to be going strong. Gaming revenue has increased year over year. The workforce is still growing.

“The streets of this community are not full of people who have been laid off,” said Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Applied Analytics, a firm that provides economic and financial policy advice in Las Vegas.

“The layoff trends, the unemployment insurance, they are increasing,” Aguero said. “But they’re certainly not wildly higher than other periods of volatility.”

This, however, offers little relief for Mahan as he makes drinks, grabs food and carefully checks his wallet.

If he knew then what he knows now, what would the Aaron of 2016 — the person who so desperately hopes for a Trump presidency — say to the Aaron of today?

Mahan stood up, his chopsticks dangling over the custard dumpling.

“Get ready for a rough ride,” he said.