Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s tax cuts in the one Big Beautiful Bill have been a “home run” for working-class Americans, with 53 million using at least one of the president’s new deductions.
While responding to a question from Breitbart News during a Tax Day White House press briefing, Bessent noted that waiters, waitresses, and doormen regularly thank him across the nation’s capital because of Trump’s no-tips tax policy.
“As you both noted, 53 million Americans have used one of these new tax exemptions the president enacted. Can you speak to not only the relief that that’s bringing specifically working class Americans, like waiters, bartenders, overtime workers, but also the impact this is going to have on the economy?” Breitbart News asked Bessent.
“I think with service workers, I may be the most popular cabinet secretary in D.C. because when I show up, doormen—not so much bartenders—but waiters, waitresses, they all say thank you for no taxes and tips,” he said.
“Again, I was in a diner up in Westchester County, and… this is a home run in terms of what’s happening with these folks,” he added.
Along with the tipped worker deduction, the One Big Beautiful Bill implemented a deduction for qualified overtime workers, a deduction for interest paid on loans for American-assembled cars, and deductions for certain senior citizens.
“And what we can’t tell you yet, and we will be able to provide data at a later date, that 52 million is how many have used at least one of those. So we expect that there are probably… filers who have used at least more than one of those four signature things,” he said, adding the policies are “America First.”
“Hard-working Americans keeping more of their money, just like with our small businesses,” he added. “If we go back and look, when you hear the left talk about ‘This was a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires.’ They wanted to raise the tax rate for everyone making more than $500,000. That is a small business killer,” he continued.
Tax refunds, on average, have been 11 percent higher thus far in 2026 than in 2025, and Americans have received an average of 19 percent more back this year than in the previous four years, according to the White House. Moreover, over six million Americans have used the no-tax-on-tips deduction, more than 25 million have claimed the overtime deduction, and more than 30 million seniors have used the Social Security deduction.
“As we have seen this tax season, President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts have put a historic amount of money back into the pockets of the American people,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the top of the briefing.
