Ahead of his Wednesday rally on Long Island, Donald Trump is vowing to restore the federal deduction for state and local tax payments, also known as SALT, reversing course on a controversial provision of the 2017 tax law that he pushed through Congress. 

In a Tuesday afternoon post on social media, Trump pledged to “get SALT back” if returned to the White House. 

The 2017 Republican tax law, which he signed and continues to champion, capped the SALT deduction at $10,000 — part of an effort to help pay for tax cuts included in the legislation. The cap disproportionately hurts taxpayers in blue states like New York, where property and state income taxes are relatively high.

The about-face came a day before Trump is set to rally in Nassau County on Long Island in one of the several competitive congressional districts across New York that could determine control of the U.S. House next year. 

Several New York Republicans fighting to hold on to those battleground seats, who mounted an unsuccessful bid for SALT reform earlier this year, quickly rallied behind Trump. 

In a statement, Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler said, “I’m glad to hear that former President Trump has committed to lifting the cap on SALT … Since taking office, this has been a top priority for me.”

Nassau County Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, whose district will host the former president’s Wednesday rally, tweeted a salt shaker emoji. 

— Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (@RepDesposito) September 17, 2024

In this year’s campaign, Trump already has proposed ending federal taxes on tips, overtime earnings and social security benefits, and lowering corporate taxes, costing the government potentially hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Ending the cap on SALT would add even more to the deficit. 

Democrats noted Trump is the one who restricted the SALT deduction in the first place. 

Suffolk County congressional candidate John Avlon called Trump’s announcement “SALT in our wounds.”

Laura Gillen, who is seeking to unseat D’Esposito, said in a statement, “Nassau County families see right through Trump and D’Esposito’s performative bluff.”

Rep. Tom Suozzi, whose refrain was “No SALT, no deal” during deliberations over Democrats’ ‘Build Back Better’ bill several years ago, said, “If [Trump] is truly serious he should urge 100 Republicans in the House and 25 in the Senate to join me to restore the full SALT deduction now!”

And Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has pledged to not put legislation on the Senate floor extending the cap if he remains majority leader next year, accused Trump of pretending to support SALT ahead of his Long Island rally. 

Schumer described the 2017 Republican tax law as “a nasty piece of legislation – supported by Donald Trump – aimed at the blue states.”

Asked why Trump had a change of heart on SALT, Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “While his pro-growth, pro-energy policies will make life affordable again, President Trump is also going to quickly move tax relief for working people and Seniors.”

Immigration policy has become a major flashpoint in the race for New York’s competitive 19th congressional district.

In a social media post Monday, incumbent Republican Congressman Marc Molinaro shared the debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in an Ohio town are eating pets. In the same tweet, he argued his Democratic opponent, Josh Riley, “owns” the consequences of the situation at the southern border. 

Asked by Spectrum News 1 about the post, Molinaro invoked concerns over illegal border crossings, saying, “I mean no offense to anyone who is simply wishing to make their way in the world … For a year and a half, people like me – moderate, calm, reasonable people – have been saying that this country is experiencing a crisis.”

Asked about the tweet, Riley fired back. 

“What [Molinaro is] doing is rage-tweeting conspiracy theories. He needs to put his phone down, take a deep breath, get off of Twitter and do his job,” Riley said. 

So far this campaign cycle, both candidates in this district, which stretches from Ithaca to the Hudson Valley, have criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the border.

Molinaro has sought to tie Riley to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s work on immigration-related issues as vice president, invoking a fundraising email where Riley voiced support for Harris’s nomination. 

For his part, Riley accuses the Biden administration of making a “big mistake” by waiting as long as it did to roll out June’s executive order tightening asylum restrictions.

Legislatively, Molinaro has touted his vote last year for House Republicans’ strict border bill. Riley has pointed to a separate Senate proposal. Neither has become law. 

Molinaro casts Riley as untrustworthy on immigration, pointing in part to work he did as a lawyer while Donald Trump was in the White House.

“Josh Riley advanced the open border agenda that led the Biden administration to surrender the southern border,” Molinaro said. “His legal argument, advanced by him, was that the administration has the right to ignore the law.”

Riley disputes this. 

During the Trump years, Riley helped draft “friend of the court” briefs on behalf of former homeland security and immigration officials, challenging certain Trump immigration policies, like the so-called Muslim ban.

Another filing Riley worked on blasted Trump’s efforts to undo DACA, which allows undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to live and work here without fear of deportation. The filing labels DACA “smart policy.”

Defending the use of such discretionary relief in the case of DACA, Riley told Spectrum News 1, “When you have limited law enforcement resources, you can choose – like I would do – and focus them on the drug traffickers. Focus it on the human traffickers. Focus it on keeping dangerous people out of this country.”

Molinaro has also criticized Riley’s work as a Senate staffer on a 2013 immigration bill. 

The measure called for additional border fencing and more border patrol agents alongside a pathway to citizenship for potentially millions of undocumented immigrants. It never became law. 

“He … takes credit for drafting a mass amnesty bill,” Molinaro argued. 

Riley pushed back, noting the bipartisan support the bill received a decade ago in the Senate. Molinaro “should probably also take that up with Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham and John McCain and Jeff Flake,” Riley said. 

Asked if he stands by the 2013 bill, Riley said that while the bill was not perfect, it may have prevented “a lot of the problems we’re seeing today.”

The battle in the 19th congressional district is one of a handful of races across New York that could determine which party controls the U.S. House in January.