During his speech on the first night of the DNC, Bernie Sanders slammed Donald Trump for both supporting huge tax breaks for billionaires and allowing states to lower their minimum wages below the current federal floor of $7.25 an hour.
On Tuesday, Trump did an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. Asked about Sanders’ attack, Trump offered a response that was simultaneously incoherent and unflattering in its characterization of the Republican brand.
After accusing Sanders of lying, Trump said, “I would leave it and raise it somewhat. You need to help people and I know it’s not very Republican to say but you need to help people.”
That quote comes at about the 6:10 mark of this video:
Regarding the federal minimum wage, Trump went on to say $10 sounds like a reasonable number, but added, “the thing is Bill, let the states make the deal.”
Politifact concluded Sanders’ attack on Trump was mostly true — in other words, the minimum wage position Trump’s articulated would indeed give states the ability to set their minimum wages as low as they want.
Trump hasn’t been consistent on the minimum wage issue. After saying he opposes a federal minimum wage increase during a Republican debate last fall — “Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world,” he said — Trump indicated he was actually open to an increase shortly after becoming the the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in May. Polling suggests that’s smart politics — a recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found that 77 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Republicans support raising the federal minimum to $10.