LAS VEGAS— Aaron Mahan is a lifelong Republican who voted for Donald Trump twice.
He had high hopes that a businessman would get into the White House, and although he found the president's monstrous ego exasperated, Mahan voted for his re-election. Mainly, he said, because of party loyalty.
However, by 2024, he had had enough.
“I just saw more bad qualities, more ego,” said Mahan, who spent decades working as a food truck on the Las Vegas Strip and beyond. “And I felt that he was at least partially running to avoid prison.”
Mahan could not bring himself support Kamala Harris. He never supported a Democrat for president. Therefore, when illness overtook him on election day, it was a good excuse to stay in bed and not vote.
He's not a Trump hater, Mahan said. “I don't think he's evil.” Rather, the 52-year-old calls himself a “Trump realist,” seeing the good and the bad.
Here's Mahan's reality: a big drop in wages. Draining his emergency savings. Stress every time he stops at a gas station or visits a supermarket.
Mahan nonchalantly tossed things into his grocery cart. “Now,” he said, “you need to look at the prices because everything is more expensive.”
In short, he is experiencing the worst combination of inflation and economic crisis he has faced since he started working as a waiter after graduating from high school.
Las Vegas thrives on tourism, an industry watered by rivers of disposable income. The demise of both led to a painful downturn, made even more painful by pent-up demand and subsequent years of recovery. devastating closure due to COVID-19.
Visitor numbers have dropped significantly over the past 12 months, and those coming to Las Vegas are spending less. Arrival of passengers in the city Harry Reid International Airport, a short drive from the Strip have declined, and room nights, a measure of hotel occupancy, have also declined.
Mahan, who works at the Virgin Casino Resort off the Strip, blames much of the slowdown on Trump's failure to rein in inflation. its tariffs and aggressive immigration and foreign policies that hostile people – and potential visitors – all over the world.
“His general attitude is, 'I'm going to do what I'm going to do, and you'll like it or you'll leave it.' And they leave,” Mahan said. “The Canadians won't come. The Mexicans won't come. The Europeans won't come like they do. But neither will people from Southern California. won't come the way they came or.”
Mahan has a way of describing the devastating blow to the Las Vegas economy. He calls it the “Trump crisis.”
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Mahan was an Air Force son who lived throughout the United States and briefly in England before his father left the Army and began looking for a place to settle.
Mahan's mother grew up in Sacramento and loved mountains surrounding Las Vegas. They reminded her of the Sierra Nevada. Mahan's father worked periodically as a bartender. This was a very useful skill in Nevada's vast hospitality industry.
So, it was a deserted metropolis.
Mahan was 15 when his family landed. After high school, he attended college for a while and began working at the cafe at the Barbary Coast Hotel and Casino. It then moved on to an upscale gourmet lounge. The money was good; Mahan has found his career.
From there he moved to Circus Circus and then, in 2005, to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, where he has been ever since. (Virgin Hotels acquired Hard Rock in 2018.)
Mahan, single and without children, learned to cope with the vicissitudes of the hotel business. “As a food provider, there will always be slowdowns and ups and downs,” he said over lunch at a dim sum restaurant in a Las Vegas strip mall.
Mahan saved money during the summer months and hunkered down during the tough times before things picked up in the New Year. He stood it Great Recession from 2007 to 2009, when Nevada leads the nation in foreclosure losses. Bankruptcies skyrocketed and tumbleweeds swept through many of the rebuilt and financially distressed Las Vegas subdivisions.
This economy is doing worse.
Las Vegas has attracted fewer visitors over the past 12 months, and those who do come are spending less.
(David Becker / For The Times)
With tourism shut down, the hotel where Mahan works has gone from a full-service café to a buffet with limited hours. So he no longer waits tables. Instead, he serves the to-go window, prepares drinks and serves food to guests, which earns him much less in tips. He estimates his income has dropped by $2,000 a month.
But the point is not only that his salaries have become significantly smaller. They don't go that far.
Petrol. Eggs. Meat. “Everything,” said Mahan, “ “costs more.”
An admitted drug addict, he routinely devoured Dr. Pepper. “You get three bottles for four dollars,” Mahan said. “Now they cost $3 apiece.”
As a result, it shrunk.
To make matters worse, his air conditioner broke last month, and the $14,000 Mahan spent to replace it, plus the expensive filter he needs for his allergies, has all but wiped out his emergency fund.
It feels like Mahan is struggling to make ends meet and he is not at all optimistic that the situation will improve soon.
“I look forward to the day Trump leaves office,” he said.
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Mahan considers himself fairly apolitical. He would rather hit a tennis ball than discuss the latest events in Washington.
He likes some of Trump's achievements, for example: Mexican border security — although Mahan is not a fan of zealous immigration raids bringing in landscapers and tamale vendors.
He's glad that tax-free tip provision V A large-scale legislative package was adopted last spring, however, “I am still taxed at the same rate and there is no additional money coming in now.” He's waiting to see what happens when he files his taxes next year.
He doesn't count on much. “I’m never convinced of anything,” Mahan said. “Until I see it.”
Something else is swirling in the back of his mind.
Mahan is a union steward at the Culinary Union. powerful labor organization it helped make Las Vegas one of the few places in the country where a waiter like Mahan could earn enough to buy a house in an upscale suburb like nearby Henderson. (He notes that he made the purchase in 2012 and probably couldn't afford it in today's economy.)
Mahan worries that once Trump stops targeting immigrants, federal workers and Democratic-run cities, he will begin targeting organized labor, undermining one of the fundamental building blocks that helped propel him into the middle class.
“He's a businessman, and most businessmen don't like dealing with unions,” Mahan said.
There are a few bright spots in Las Vegas' economic picture. Conference bookings are up slightly this year and appear to be continuing to rise. Gaming revenues increased compared to last year. The workforce continues to grow.
“The streets of this community are not littered with laid-off people,” said Jeremy Aguero, chief analyst at Applied Analysis, an economic and tax policy consulting firm in Las Vegas.
“Trends in layoffs, unemployment insurance have increased,” Aguero said. “But they are, of course, not very inflated compared to other periods of instability.”
That's some consolation for Mahan, though, as he prepares drinks, serves takeout food and keeps a close eye on his wallet.
If he knew then what he knows now, what would the Aaron of 2016, the one so hopeful about a Trump presidency, say to the Aaron of today?
Mahan paused, his chopsticks hovering over the custard dumplings.
“Be prepared,” he said, “for a bumpy ride.”
