"Quite often, when the press and the media runs him down, they think about, you know, 'He's taking care of his billionaire friends'. But those billionaire friends provide jobs. And unless you take care of them, those jobs are absent." — Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), onstage with President Donald Trump at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas on Aug. 5

It's trivially easy to write an opinion column that aims snark and ire at our governor for praising Trump's protection of the rich and powerful.

After all, if there's one thing Americans of all political stripes agree upon, it's that billionaires are elites and elites don't share our values. In a recent poll conducted by The Argument, 77 percent of Americans selected billionaires as elites — ahead of celebrities (60 percent), business executives (48 percent), elected officials (43 percent) and journalists (9 percent). 

As fun as it would be to write that column, however, there's just one problem — Trump has been, on net, a disaster for Nevada's billionaires and job creators.

Take, for example, a tax law change enacted through Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act aimed directly at the heart of Nevada's largest economic engine: gaming. In the bill was a clause that reduced the amount gamblers can deduct from their winnings, from 100 percent to 90 percent of their losses. Consequently, a gambler can now lose $100,000, win $95,000 of it back, and still owe Uncle Sam income taxes even though they already lost more money than they won.

As soon as it passed, Republican lawmakers were apologetic and swore they'd fix it.

Despite Nevada's congressional delegation putting all hands on deck to address the problem, our state's casino-owning billionaires are still waiting. Rep. Dina Titus's (D-NV) FAIR BET bill, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) and the rest of Nevada's representatives, remains in legislative limbo. So is the House's version of the FULL HOUSE Act, which was co-sponsored by Reps. Steven Horsford (D-NV) and Susie Lee (D-NV). 

The Senate's version, meanwhile, has also gone nowhere — even though all three of these bills have Republican co-sponsors.

Has Trump called for the abolition of the filibuster or ordered the Senate to delay its recess to support any of these measures? When he was last in Las Vegas, did he promise to make things right?

He did not — and why should he? His son, Donald Trump Jr., isn't investing in casinos. His son is investing in prediction markets, such as Polymarket and Kalshi, which have been aggressively competing against the billionaire-owned brick-and-mortar job creators we've all grown to … well, perhaps "love" is too strong a word, but maybe we can all agree with "respect."

Those investments are paying off at our primary industry's expense. In February, Nevada's sportsbooks reported their lowest collective wagering totals on the Super Bowl in a decade.

Once again, Nevada's congressional delegation has been doing what it can to address this problem. Horsford and Amodei, for example, introduced a bill banning sports betting on prediction markets, as did Titus. Like those seeking to restore full deductibility for gambling losses, however, these bills also haven't gone anywhere. 

How does Trump feel about these efforts? He asserted that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — which at the time of this writing still has only one commissioner out of its normal five — has exclusive regulatory authority over prediction markets. He also expressed his usual level of vitriol against former or current elected officials skeptical of having a sleepy government agency with more experience overseeing speculation on pork bellies and minerals now oversee what is essentially sports betting.

It's difficult to enjoy no taxes on tips when people are gambling on their phones at home instead of coming to your place of employment.

Gaming isn't the only industry to suffer under Trump's administration. Nevada is a state with ample sunshine and proven lithium deposits, but has rarely been blessed with commercially recoverable deposits of fossil fuels. Trump's energy policy, which seeks to "retvrn" America to fossil fuel dependence, has blocked or delayed several attempts to develop our state's resources.

Wind and solar projects on public lands, for example, now must be approved directly by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. This has stalled permitting for hundreds of such projects nationwide — especially in Nevada. Only now are long-planned solar projects starting to move forward once again, such as the Mosey Solar Project near Pahrump, though baseline costs will only go up with the administration's recent order to increase tariffs and set price floors on imported materials used to produce solar panels.

As for lithium, Trump made it a point to mock electric vehicle owners while he was last in Las Vegas, claiming "they have a disease" and "these people are crazy." This followed Trump's unprecedented demand for a 5 percent stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mine and its parent company in exchange for previously guaranteed federal loans, substantial delays in federal permitting processes following staff reductions in permitting agencies and increases in the price of steel and sulphuric acid spurred by Trump's on-again, off-again conflict with Iran.

Did I mention that Panasonic's electric vehicle battery factory is one of Northern Nevada's biggest employers? Or that the Thacker Pass lithium mining project is turning previously sleepy Winnemucca into a boomtown?

But hey, to Trump's credit, UNR's Mackay School of Mines just announced it will get to share $100 million — with an "m," not a "b" — in grants with 13 other mining schools in the nation. Assuming the Office of Management and Budget agrees that the school's projects "demonstrably advance the president's policy priorities," a few million dollars might even still be worth something.

Now that Lombardo has finished kowtowing to an increasingly unpopular president, perhaps he should check to see if he has any in-state billionaire friends, too. If he does, he should ask them how their businesses are doing under Trump's "care."

David Colborne ran for public office twice. He is now an IT manager and a recurring opinion columnist for The Nevada Independent. You can follow him on Mastodon @[email protected], on Bluesky @davidcolborne.bsky.social, on Threads @davidcolbornenv or email him at [email protected]. You can also message him on Signal at dcolborne.64.