Donald Trump U-turn in row over low pay

Billionaire ‘changes policy’ after rejecting minimum wage hike

Mon, 09 May, 2016 - 01:00

Jill Colvin

Donald Trump has done a U-turn in the row over low pay, saying yesterday that “people have to get more,” after spending time on the campaign trail striking down the possibility of a hike in the minimum wage.

“I am looking at it, and I haven’t decided in terms of numbers. But I think people have to get more,” Trump said on ABC News’ This Week.

In a debate in November, Trump said that the wages were too high in the US. But he told ABC that it was a different opinion than previously expressed.

“Sure, it’s a change. I’m allowed to change,” he said. “But my real minimum wage is going to be — I’m going to bring companies back into this country, and they’re going to make a lot more than the $15 even.”

He also said is open to raising taxes on wealthy Americans, backing off his prior proposal to reduce taxes on all Americans. “I am willing to pay more, and you know what, the wealthy are willing to pay more.”

Meanwhile, Trump also described former US president Bill Clinton as “the worst abuser of women in the history of politics”, firing a warning shot across the bows of Hillary Clinton and her allies, should they attack the billionaire businessman over his treatment of the opposite sex.

The Republican White House hopeful is also up against criticism from within his own party as some high-profile figures say they will not vote for him.

Asked about his ability to unify the party, Trump says he did not think it had to be unified and that he would gain Democratic votes to win in the autumn.

“I think it would be better if it were unified, I think it would be — there would be something good about it. But I don’t think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense.”

While speaking at a pair of rallies in Washington state on Saturday, Trump repeatedly assailed the woman he has dubbed “Crooked Hillary” while hardly sparing former Republicans rivals Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham, who are repulsed by his chokehold on their party’s presidential nomination.

“She’s married to a man who was the worst abuser of women in the history of politics,” Trump said of the former US secretary of state at the Spokane Convention Centre.

Trump appeared to be responding to news Priorities USA, the lead super PAC backing Clinton, has already reserved €91m in television advertising that will start next month.

Much of the negative advertising against Trump is expected to focus on belittling statements he has made about women in the past.