Trump-Hosting Restaurant Owner Says He May Have to Close as Costs Soar Under President: 'Everything Is Worse'

The Las Vegas restaurateur who hosted Donald Trump's 'no tax on tips' pitch in 2024 says costs have climbed so steeply under the president that he may give up the business. 'Everything is worse', Javier Barajas told CNN in a report broadcast on CNN News Central on 27 October. If conditions do not improve, he said, he will either 'sell this restaurant or close it.'

Barajas, who emigrated from Michoacán, Mexico, in the late 1970s, told The Nevada Independent in 2024 that he owned five Las Vegas restaurants employing more than 500 people. The one at risk is Il Toro E La Capra, a Mexican-Italian spot in Spring Valley.

From Trump Supporter to Weighing a Sale

Trump first floated ending federal tax on tips at a Las Vegas rally on 9 June 2024. On 23 August, he took the pledge to Barajas's dining room. 'We've come here today to talk about the biggest promise I think that the restaurant workers have had in a long time, and that's no tax on tips,' he said.

The event brought boycott calls, but Barajas, a former Barack Obama voter, stood firm. 'I was so grateful to have President Donald Trump in my restaurant,' he said on Fox & Friends First that September, complaining that under President Joe Biden, 'Everything is very expensive.'

Trump won Nevada that November, the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since 2004. He signed the tips and overtime deductions into law in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on 4 July 2025, allowing workers to deduct up to $25,000 (£18,800) in tips and up to $12,500 (£9,400) in overtime pay for single filers. The Treasury Department said in April that more than 53 million filers had claimed at least one of the new tax cuts.

Restaurant Owner Says Tax Breaks Have Not Kept Pace

Asked by CNN's Kyung Lah whether those measures had made things better, Barajas said, 'I don't see things getting better. That's when I start thinking, oh, my God, what about my employees, you know? How they living, how they pay the rent?'

One item he buys, he said, used to cost between $39 and $44 (£29 and £33) and now costs almost $75 (£56). He blamed diesel, since produce reaches the city by truck, and the US war with Iran. 'Iran war, it went up more,' he said.

Iran War Drives Up Diesel and Petrol

The war began on 28 February, and disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed fuel prices up worldwide. On-highway diesel averaged $6.35 (£4.77) a gallon nationally on 26 October, $2.63 (£1.98) more than a year earlier, according to the Energy Information Administration. Las Vegas petrol averaged $5.38 (£4.04) a gallon on 22 October, AAA said.

Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released on 14 October showed consumer prices up 3.7 per cent in the year to September, with petrol up 34.2 per cent. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found in a 26 October study that Americans have paid more than any other nation's consumers for the fuel spike, an average of $471 (£354) each.

Staff Turn to Scooters and Second Jobs

Chef Fernando Perez earns nearly double Nevada's $12 (£9) hourly minimum wage, and his overtime qualifies for the new deduction, CNN reported. 'I would say I'm making enough money, but I still can't make it,' he said.

Perez said several colleagues now ride scooters to work because of fuel prices. Pedro Hernandez said through a translator that he sold his car and travels about 40 minutes by scooter to the restaurant. Bartender Kevin Banda said he works more than 100 hours a week and took a second job to keep up with payments. Asked whether Trump's policy changes had affected his life, he replied, 'Not really'.

White House Defends Its Economic Record

White House spokesperson Matthew Middleton told The Daily Beast that Trump 'has implemented an aggressive, pro-growth economic agenda.' The administration says higher fuel prices are a small cost to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. At a rally in Perry, Georgia, on 24 October, Trump said, 'And those pump prices are going to come down.'

Barajas did not say when he would decide. Nevada votes in the 3 November midterms. Asked what he would now tell Trump, he said, 'Don't get into wars.'