In an interview with Virginia talk radio host John Fredericks on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said that the presumptive GOP nominee believes there should be no federal minimum wage and that states should be allowed “to choose what the minimum wage should be in their respective states.”
“We should allow the states to decide how much it is,” he said. States can currently set their own wages, but they must follow the federal rate even if the state minimum is lower or nonexistent.
“It should be a state-based decision and I think there are some things, many things, where the federal government does not belong and this may be one of them,” Lewandowski said.
Lewandowski made the comments the day before Trump himself said it is a “lie” to claim that he wants to eliminate the federal minimum wage.
Trump himself has taken multiple and conflicting positions on the minimum wage.
Back in August, Trump came out against an increase in the minimum wage because “having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country”
Then, during a debate in November, Trump said he opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage because wages are “too high” and “we have to leave it the way it is.” One month later, he denied ever saying that wages are too high.
On May 8, Trump said he would “like to see an increase of some magnitude” in the minimum wage but that he doesn’t want the federal government to set a minimum wage floor and instead wants to “let the states decide,” even though eliminating the federal standard would let the minimum wage fall in several states.
Three days later, Trump tweeted that he is “asking for [an] increase” in the minimum wage and that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., “lied when she says I want to abolish the Federal Minimum Wage.”
Goofy Elizabeth Warren lied when she says I want to abolish the Federal Minimum Wage. See media—asking for increase!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2016
