Tipsheet

In Reversal, Trump Warms to Idea of Raising Minimum Wage

Donald Trump has flip-flopped yet again, this time on the minimum wage.

The presumptive GOP nominee said in an interview on CNN that he’s open to looking at increasing the federal minimum wage because people need enough money to live on.

"I’m looking at that because I’m very different from most Republicans,” he said. “You have to have something that you can live on, but what I’m really looking to do is get people great jobs so they make much more money than that, so they make more money than the $15. If you start playing around too much with the lower level, the lower level number, you’re not going to be competitive ... I'm open to doing something with it because I don't like that. What I do like is bring our jobs back."

Labor groups have been pushing to increase the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $15.

Trump said during a November GOP debate, however, that he is opposed to raising the minimum wage.

“I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is,” he said at the time.

He even argued during a November interview with MSNBC that it was too high.

"We have to become competitive with the world. Our taxes are too high, our wages are too high, everything is too high,” he said. “What's going to happen is now people are going to start firing people.”

He did say during Wednesday’s interview, however, that lawmakers need to be careful about making drastic changes to the minimum wage.

“If you start playing around too much with that lower level number, you are not going to be competitive,” he explained, before again saying that he’s “open to doing something” with the federal minimum wage.