() senior national correspondent Brian Entin’s “Driving the Vote” series taking the temperature of voters 100 days into President Trump’s second term continues in Las Vegas.
Tourism is down there. Visits to the entertainment destination tumbled nearly 8% in the month of March, year over year, with approximately 3.39 million people visiting the city.
International travel to the U.S. is declining across the board, especially with travelers from Asia. Foreigners are foregoing travel here for several reasons, including rising geopolitical tensions, the state of the global economy and President Trump’s tariffs.
Some cities are not affected. In St. Louis, the hotel trade is seeing a boom. For the week ending March 29, the Missouri riverfront city saw a 47% increase in revenue per available room, leading all U.S. hotel markets.
In Vegas, Entin reunited with real-estate agent Alina Gardner, who moved to the United States from Cuba as a young girl. Last year, the Republican said she had trouble backing Trump, partly because of his age, and was leaning toward Democrat Kamala Harris.
Currently, her feelings about Trump are not positive because of what she sees as a cooling Vegas economy. She’s critical of the president’s tariffs, which have roiled the financial markets.
“All it’s doing is just ruining the stock market for those of us that have 401(k)’s that are at the end of the road,” she told Entin. “We’re going to have to start withdrawing the money out of our 401(k). I lost 33% of what I made last year in the first 100 days he’s been in office.”
Gardner stressed she wants Trump to succeed: “If he does well, we do well,” she said.
Retired blackjack dealer David Mendez, who supported Trump in the last election, is more optimistic. He said he especially likes what the president has done on immigration.
“We don’t want to have all these terrorists and all these bad people coming into the country,” he said.
Mendez, however, said he would support a path to residency for undocumented immigrants who have settled here. He also voiced support for helping the so-called “Dreamers” who were brought here as children.
