{"id":240245,"date":"2026-05-22T05:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240245\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T05:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:26:06","slug":"trump-heads-to-a-competitive-new-york-district-to-sell-his-tax-law-as-voters-sour-on-the-economy-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240245\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Heads to a Competitive New York District to Sell His Tax Law as Voters Sour on the Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> is heading to a toss-up congressional district in New York<\/a> on Friday to test his midterm message on the economy, even as voters largely disapprove of his stewardship of it.<\/p>\n

Trump will travel to the Hudson Valley area to appear with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who is up for reelection in what will be one of the most closely watched House races this November<\/a>. The focus of the event is to promote the tax law Trump signed last year<\/a>, particularly the quadrupling of the deduction for state and local taxes, which is critical in a high-tax state like New York.<\/p>\n

The White House has been looking for more opportunities to highlight Trump\u2019s economic accomplishments as his approval rating on the economy has slumped. About one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to a new AP-NORC poll<\/a>, down slightly from 40% at the start of Trump’s second term. Trump had promised to bring prices down, but gasoline prices have surged this year due to the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, the people who hate the president \u2014 and that\u2019s their sole basis for their vote \u2014 are likely never voting for me,” Lawler told The Associated Press in an interview on the sidelines of the White House congressional picnic earlier this week. He described the Trump appearance as a chance to energize supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, I have a record in my district that is one I\u2019m very proud of, and a record that appeals to a broad middle,” said Lawler, who was wearing a red ball cap emblazoned with \u201cMr. SALT,\u201d the acronym for the state and local tax deduction<\/a> he fought to include in the bill. \u201cI am confident that I will be reelected on my own merits and my own record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s remarks at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, will \u201chighlight his strong record of making life more affordable for working families,\u201d White House spokesperson Liz Huston said. She added that Trump plans to draw a sharp contrast with Democrats in Congress, who voted against the tax law.<\/p>\n

Trump established a SALT cap in 2017 through his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Last year\u2019s law expanded the SALT deduction<\/a> to $40,000 from $10,000 after arduous negotiations with Republicans, including Lawler, whose district has high local taxes. The law also raised the average tax refund for New Yorkers to more than $3,800, according to data provided by the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy constituents were seeing anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 refund checks, which is pretty massive,\u201d said Lawler, who said he wanted to give Trump one of his \u201cMr. SALT\u201d ball caps.<\/p>\n

Trump formally endorsed Lawler for reelection<\/a> last year, although it came at a time when the congressman was publicly mulling a run for governor of New York. The endorsement<\/a> was viewed as a way to keep Lawler in a reelection bid rather than opening up a competitive House seat. <\/p>\n

Five Democrats are vying for the party’s nomination to compete against Lawler in the general election. The Democratic primary is June 23. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing says \u2018I don\u2019t understand my district\u2019 quite like Mike Lawler bringing Donald Trump to NY-17 to tout a disastrous economy that\u2019s crushing working families at every turn,” said Riya Vashi, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. <\/p>\n

National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson disputed that, arguing that Trump’s Friday appearance will \u201cabsolutely\u201d help.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis poll numbers are pretty good in Lawler\u2019s district,\u201d said Hudson, a North Carolina<\/a> congressman. The NRCC has been polling in competitive districts and Hudson said the \u201cpresident\u2019s numbers are good. Democratic numbers are tanking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks are an official White House event and not a campaign one, said Lawler, who noted that more than 5,000 people registered to attend in the first 12 hours that a sign-up was available.<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

Photos You Should See \u2013 April 2026<\/p>\n

\"Dancers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump is heading to a toss-up congressional district in New York on Friday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[118,30065,63353,59691,59690,416,9,11,10,3206,87,2780,421],"class_list":["post-240245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-associated-press","tag-capitalism","tag-collections-political","tag-collections-top-news","tag-collections-us","tag-elections","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-political-news","tag-politics","tag-taxes","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}