The Truth About DoorDash Grandma

[00:00:00] For the first time in A Bit Fruity's almost three-year history, I was going to skip this week. I needed a break. I spent Monday of this week basically all day at a protest with Jewish Voice for Peace. I was just feeling like I was getting behind on all the stuff I had to do. And I was just like, you know what, Matt? Take a week. You're overwhelmed. Schedule a great episode for next week. Push your schedule back a week. Nobody's gonna stone you. It's fine.

[00:00:29] I told my boyfriend. I have a guy who helps me plan the advertisements for the show. I told him that I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm not gonna have an episode this week. But then something happened that was so equally bewildering, tragic, and deranged, and fully in need of a debunking. It was like fruity bait. It was a bit fruity bait. And then I was like, okay, well, I guess we're not taking a break this week.

[00:00:56] Hello, hello, and welcome back to A Bit Fruity. The show where sometimes we talk about Debra Messing and sometimes we talk about tax law. I'm Matt Bernstein. I'm so happy that you're here. Is that a good intro? Perfect. It's amazing. It is kind of my scope. All things from Debra Messing to tax law.

[00:01:23] Yeah, just one big beautiful bill. One big beautiful podcast. Chapter one, a Russian nesting doll of lies. As I said on Monday, I was leaving a Jewish Voice for Peace protest when I saw a video that found a way to stun me, even as it becomes increasingly hard to do that. The video was of a 58-year-old woman with short gray hair, dark eye makeup, and a red t-shirt that read, DoorDash Grandma.

[00:01:53] She was walking up to the side door of the Oval Office carrying two bags of McDonald's. None other than Donald Trump answered the door. Hey, nice to see you. Nice to meet you. I have your DoorDash order for you. Jokes to the cameras that the whole thing looks staged. This doesn't look staged, does it? Which it was. And accepts the McDonald's.

[00:02:15] Trump then tells this woman that he heard she had saved $11,000 on her taxes this year, thanks to Trump's no tax on tips policy. The reason for this is the fact that I heard you picked up an extra $11,000 because the tax bill was so big. The refund was the biggest you've ever had. Which she confirms. Is that a correct statement? Yeah, I saved over $11,000.

[00:02:44] And the two ad-lib to the cameras about how great the policy is and how it's changed her life as a DoorDash driver. A hard life, by the way. The woman's husband has stage 3 cancer, and she's been DoorDashing to help cover the cost of treatment. Trump then tips her $100. And are the White House good tippers? Do you know? Um, wait. Potentially. Yes, very.

[00:03:11] Everything about this video was so patently insane to me that I had to learn more. And the more I learned, the more bizarre the actual story got. A lot of people online right now think that this woman, who I will tell you a lot about today, is a paid actor for the MAGA movement. And maybe she isn't even a DoorDash driver at all.

[00:03:32] What happened with DoorDash grandma is indeed a Russian nesting doll of lies, but what I found is more complicated than that, and also somehow more tragic. Today, we're going to tell what is perhaps the most American story of this year so far. And to do that, I'm so happy to be joined by two of my good friends, good friends of the show.

[00:03:54] Kat Tenbarge, writer for Spitfire News, and Caroline Kwan, the political and pop culture streamer over on Twitch. My favorite ladies, welcome back to the show. Well, not my favorite. I love everyone on this podcast, but you know. Yay! For today, we're your favorite ladies. Happy to be back with, you know, some of my favorite people. This is a comfort zone now. Just sitting here and talking about crazy shit.

[00:04:22] I was trying to think of what her, the DoorDash grandma's eyeshadow reminded me of, because I was like, this reminds me of something. And I was like, oh, I just remembered. It's a Jeffree Star fan. That's like what her makeup reminds me of. Wait, so true. Like Jeffree Star style? Like someone who buys a Jeffree Star palette. Oh, yeah. Like she fits the average Target demo. To me, it actually gives more like Avon lady. Oh, yeah.

[00:04:49] Just like kind of like a sort of smudging around of some sort of like cool toned, like almost purpley eyeshadow on the eye and like slap some foundation, call it a day sort of thing. So true. I have a lot of notes here on what's true, what's not true, what is fabricated, what's beneath the surface of this entire situation. We're going to get into all of it. But top line, what are your thoughts? Did you see this?

[00:05:14] I mean, my first, literally the first thing I was thinking of, that picture of Trump handing her a $100 bill. Obviously, the ploy here is like, what an amazing tip for like your DoorDash driver. Like we're not all tipping our DoorDash drivers $100 bills. But I tried to calculate like just in the past year, Trump has made an estimated like $3 billion from mainly crypto. And I was trying to calculate like what is $100 to someone who made $3 billion in the last year?

[00:05:43] And the calculator could not do it. It ran out of space. Because it was so close to zero. It was like such a tiny, tiny fraction of his net worth. So it would be like the equivalent of you or I tipping a DoorDash driver like less than half of a penny. It's like it's actually not a good tip when you made $3 billion in the past year. He should be giving his DoorDash drivers like $10,000 each. And that would be like an okay tip for him.

[00:06:10] I also see a world where after the cameras stopped rolling, he's like, yeah, I'll have that back. Thanks very much. He pulled a J-Lo. I don't know if you guys know this, but famously J-Lo will take tips back from servers. I did not know that. That was a prop. I'll have that back. Or it's one of those fake $100 bills with his face on it. The Donald Trump bills. Yeah, they would like.

[00:06:38] I remember growing up like kids at bar mitzvahs. Like you would get like your face printed on a bunch of like fake money and then they would like throw it out during like while you're like dancing to Pitbull at your bar mitzvah. It was like Trump bar mitzvah money for sure. Yeah, they used to do this at the clubs that I worked at where you would see people scrambling to pick up what they thought were real bills on the ground. And it's just some asshole's face that he had shot out of a cannon with a bunch of confetti. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[00:07:07] And the realization on people's face when they would pick up the bill and go, oh, this is not real. I want to start with the events that day at the White House. Let's start with the story as the White House is telling it about this woman, about their interaction and about what this is all for. So Sharon Simmons is a 58 year old grandmother of 10. That's true. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has been DoorDashing since 2021.

[00:07:37] DoorDash, if you don't know, if you live outside of the U.S., is a food delivery app. And Sharon has completed over 14,000 trips dropping off people's food since 2021. She said she enjoys the flexibility of the job.

[00:07:53] DoorDash and the White House collaborated on this staged Oval Office meetup to celebrate the one year anniversary of Trump's no tax on tips policy, which the White House introduced with the quote unquote big beautiful bill. More on that policy in a second. We will dig into it. Sharon was selected by DoorDash to appear in this stunt and flown from Arkansas to D.C. for it.

[00:08:17] Immediately following the visit, both the White House and DoorDash posted photos and videos from it for advertising purposes. You know, Trump wants to advertise this policy he has. DoorDash wants to advertise DoorDash. So the White House at White House tweets a photo of Trump handing Sharon Simmons the $100 bill and writes in all caps. No tax on tips. With the like dollars flying with wings emoji. Yeah.

[00:08:43] DoorDash Impact, DoorDash's philanthropy account, which I guess they have, tweeted a video montage they made of the stunt and wrote. Most deliveries don't end at the at White House. This one did. Sharon, a dasher and grandma from Arkansas, made the delivery to at POTUS and shared her thanks for no tax on tips. Helping millions keep more of what they earn.

[00:09:10] When dashers make their voices heard, real change happens. This reminds me of like a Mr. Beast philanthropy post. Like it's the vibe of like team trees. I help a thousand people to see for the first time. The CEO of DoorDash tweets, dashers have delivered billions of orders, but this was our first to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[00:09:33] Sharon, a dasher and grandma from Arkansas, knocked on the Oval Office door to thank at POTUS for delivering no tax on tips, a policy that helps millions of hardworking Americans keep more of what they earn. This is the kind of change that can happen. It's just regurgitating company lines. The White House retweets all of DoorDash's tweets. DoorDash retweets all of the White House's tweets. Now, I just have to say, there's a lot of debunking that has to happen here and we're about to do that.

[00:10:03] But even if we take this whole situation at face value, we're looking at a woman, a senior citizen, nearly, who is delivering food for tips so she can pay for her husband's stage three cancer treatment. And this is presented as like, oh, Sharon made her voice heard.

[00:10:29] Yeah, it's a nightmare, but also such an American story. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It's also like just such a distortion of reality because as we're going to talk about more, like the White House does not get DoorDash. This is not like a real thing that happens. Donald Trump is not ordering like DoorDash on his phone. He has an entire team of people waiting on his hand and foot, every whim that passes through his head.

[00:10:56] It's like such a bizarre appeal toward relatability because it's like, oh, ordering DoorDash from McDonald's. Like what a normal all-American thing to do. But the concept of a grandma DoorDash deliverer knocking on the Oval Office door is blatantly absurd on its face. I mean, to me, it just, it reminds me of those stories where it's like, aw, preschoolers wash cars to raise money for markers in their classroom.

[00:11:23] And it's like, wait, why do they have to do anything to raise money for markers in the classroom? Why is this grandmother delivering food to pay for her elderly husband's cancer treatment? This isn't a good country if that's happening. No, it's truly giving the orphan crushing machine. Can you explain what that is? So this is a tweet.

[00:11:45] The tweet goes, every heartwarming human interest story in America is like, he raised X amount of money to keep orphans from being crushed in the orphan crushing machine. And everyone's like, yay, how wonderful. But nobody's asking, why does the orphan crushing machine exist in the first place? And why are we having to raise money to prevent it from being used? Heartwarming.

[00:12:14] Grandmother of 10 brings McDonald's to billionaire who has grossed $3 billion while in office as president over the past one and a half years. Warms my patriotic heart. Truly. But the thing is, is that people, they do have their hearts warmed from this stuff. I was on the r slash orphan crushing machine subreddit.

[00:12:40] And it's a subreddit that makes fun of these types of stories. But there was a post someone shared where somebody said, wow, what a not unironically. What a wonderful story about the DoorDash grandma loving her husband so much that she's DoorDashing to raise money for his cancer treatment. Oh.

[00:13:07] And I mean, I'm sure she does love him, but that's really not the point. People have been propagandized so much into believing that like having to afford cancer treatment, like that that's where the conversation should start. That it's like something you have to work hard to receive is like medical care. And also that like it's a sign of your moral virtue that you are doing this type of labor in old age so that your husband can survive.

[00:13:34] Like the reality is there's nothing heartwarming about that because it's such a backward system. If this is what we're forcing like elderly people to do to live. It goes against so much of like the other propaganda we hear about how like women shouldn't have to work. Women should be able to stay in the home and men should be providers. But if your husband gets cancer, then you need to start picking up food at McDonald's and driving into people's houses because otherwise you're not a good person anymore.

[00:14:04] Oh, I also just can't with how obsessed Trump is with McDonald's. Of course it was McDonald's. Yeah. Yes. I mean, he's out here serving McDonald's to the men's hockey team after winning the Olympics. I feel like that is such a key part of Trump's propaganda is like pretending he is an everyman and like his base eats that up. Like the Pennsylvania McDonald's stunt where he was putting the fries in the bag. Like people loved that.

[00:14:32] And what also drives me crazy about this is that people treat working class people in these roles so terribly all the time. But the second that it like benefits Trump's agenda, people are like, we love DoorDash grandma. Like we love people who do these types of roles in society. No, put the fries in the bag is literally like a meme used to degrade people online. And like every week online there's discourse about how like no one should ever have to tip.

[00:15:01] So at the same time that you don't want to like pay these people and you don't think that they like deserve to make a living wage. And in fact, you think their choice of career path is insulting. But also now suddenly it's like a heartwarming story. It's like people have been propagandized into believing two inherently contradictory things about this type of labor. So we've established that like even if we took everything that happened here at face value, like this is pretty fucked up.

[00:15:28] But we also can't take it at face value for a lot of reasons. And where I want to begin with this unpacking is talking about no tax on tips, which is probably something you've heard about. It most likely just statistically doesn't apply to you because tipped workers only represent 2.5% of the American working population. And it doesn't even apply to all of them.

[00:15:53] So let's just talk about no tax on tips, establish what it is and establish how it has actually affected this woman's life. So no tax on tips is a policy, like I said, enacted by the Trump administration last summer as part of the quote unquote big beautiful bill. Now, this is not an economics podcast. It is now. However. It is today.

[00:16:22] However, as a freelancer, I have had to learn a lot about doing taxes because when you don't have a company doing it for you and taking money out of your paycheck every month for taxes and you have to figure all that out yourself. It is so goddamn confusing. And I have to give a shout out to my dad here because he used to be an accountant and he is just so smart and has taught me so much about taxes and really helped me.

[00:16:50] And it is through this episode that I am making for him that I can flex my knowledge about how the U.S. tax system works. But I've also tried to make this as entertaining as possible. So let's talk about taxes. Happy tax season, everyone. Also, isn't it tax day today? It is literally tax day on the day we're recording this. Yeah, I also felt like this stunt, all things aside, was really poorly timed because I was like, you're doing it in the midnight hour of tax season. But whatever. Yeah, the worst time ever.

[00:17:18] And also because people are doing their taxes right now, if no tax on tips applies to them, they will be thinking about this stunt and quickly realizing that it is impossible to save as much money as this woman is claiming to have saved. $11,000. So let's talk about it.

[00:17:36] What no tax on tips does is allow a specific subset of tip workers like bartenders, waitstaff, barbers and hairstylists, taxi drivers, and most recently, food delivery drivers for DoorDash to deduct the money they make each year in tips from their total annual taxable income.

[00:17:57] So if you made $30,000 in 2025, let's say, but $5,000 of that $30,000 was from tips, then you'd only pay federal taxes on $25,000. I highlight federal taxes because you still have to pay state and local taxes on the full $30,000. The no tax on tips policy only applies at a federal level. We'll get into more specifics on that in a bit, but those are the basics.

[00:18:25] And so, like I said, in theory, this does save some tip workers some money on their taxes. Could you guys explain then why corporations and big businesses and Trump love this policy, even though it is theoretically to benefit workers? Yeah. So just off the bat, if companies like DoorDash are lobbying for legislation like this, you know it's not good. You know that it ultimately harms more workers than it helps.

[00:18:55] So this part of the one big, beautiful bill actually encourages harmful employer practices because companies like DoorDash use this to justify, one, classifying their employers as independent contractors. So then they have to pay the federal taxes, Social Security, Medicare, all that.

[00:19:15] And also so that if they do have them classified as employees, they don't have to pay a higher sub-minimum wage because they go, what? Well, they're getting no taxes on tips. So actually, it's good for them to have more of their income in tips. We don't want it to be that the income is coming from their hourly wage. It should be coming from tips.

[00:19:40] So it helps few low-wage workers and undercuts pay for many, many more. It benefits employers at the workers' expense. And the issue is we need to raise the federal minimum wage, and we also need to end the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. So this part of the big, beautiful bill makes that harder.

[00:20:03] It makes the fight that workers have been on the front lines fighting for, it makes that fight that much harder because they use this as a distraction and as a justification for continuing harmful practices and policies against workers.

[00:20:23] Exactly. And corporations love stuff like this because it transfers the onus of paying workers onto the customer rather than the business. People online are always complaining, and rightfully so to a big extent, that businesses like DoorDash are subsidizing their workforce by getting us, the customers, to pay for it on top of the goods and services that we're already paying for.

[00:20:49] And this is more of the same. It is a deeper continuation of that dynamic. And people who work under this type of gig employment have increasingly been organizing and unionizing and attempting to unionize over the past few years so that they can be considered more so employees,

[00:21:09] so that companies like Uber and DoorDash, which are billion-dollar companies, multi-billion-dollar companies that could easily afford to pay for benefits, to pay a minimum wage, to ensure that their drivers and the delivery people who are the foundation of their business are not unhoused and living in their cars, but they don't want to do that. So totally, it functions as a distraction and a way to undermine the workers who are trying to organize to campaign for better rights.

[00:21:38] Yeah. And, you know, on a personal note, like, a lot of people online claim about how, like, now everyone asks for tips and you have to tip at the coffee place and you have to tip at the everywhere. And look, I get it's annoying. On a personal level, I always tip, you know, as long as we have this tipping system, which is very unique to the United States and completely exploitative, you know, I'll do what I can when I get an iced latte to make it a little easier for the workers.

[00:22:05] But the bottom line is, on a systemic level, we should not have this system because the minimum wage should be a living minimum wage. But it's not. And these no tax on tips policies just further entrenches us in a system where workers are more and more exploited by businesses, which can say, well, look, we can just continue shifting the onus of pay onto the customers who it is ultimately their choice whether or not to tip.

[00:22:31] Yeah, it's frustrating because people who complain about having to pay tips and tipping culture, they don't direct that energy towards our lawmakers raising the federal minimum wage, phasing out the tip minimum wage, and they don't direct that energy towards these companies. And it's just like so much of anti-tipping discourse. And I think like no tax on tips further entrenches this.

[00:22:57] There are these ideas that a this type of labor is not valuable. And like people who do these types of taped jobs aren't doing enough to earn their tips. So commonly when people talk about this online, it's like you took my order and like filled up my coffee cup and then turned the screen around and you're expecting a tip. And like people use this discourse to like devalue this labor, even though it's incredibly hard work. It's incredibly taxing. It is actually so physically taxing that it's bad for your body to do this,

[00:23:27] which adds another layer of insult to injury or that the door dash grandma is doing this and she is like physically older and more frail. In addition to that, it's also like there's this idea and you always see these stories pushed online that like people who earn tips are actually rich. Like there you'll see people pick up on stories of like this person who works in front of house at a five star like Michelin star Manhattan restaurant says he makes like six figures a year.

[00:23:55] But that is not the average experience of people who work for tips. They're not like pulling one over us and like making all of this money. Most people are just struggling to get by if they are tipped employees. And the fact that the Trump administration is now like lying blatantly about how much you can make only furthers that stigma that it's like some sort of life cheat code when it's really not. And if you've worked for tips like I worked for tips for years, like it is not a get rich quick scheme.

[00:24:24] It is the opposite of that. It is grueling, underpaid, undervalued labor. Yes. And that segues me perfectly into, like I mentioned, 2.5 percent of Americans are tip workers. A third of those workers don't make enough money to pay any federal taxes in the first place. Meaning, if you're not paying federal taxes, then no tax on tips does nothing for you.

[00:24:52] The remaining two thirds of those 2.5 percent of Americans mostly pay very little in federal taxes simply because they don't make that much to begin with. So they're in a very low tax bracket. So how much money can no tax on tips actually save you? Let's discuss. I would also like to take a quick break from the show to give a shout out to the American Humanist Association.

[00:25:22] I am so proud and grateful that the AHA sponsors this show. They are such a wonderful organization that just aims to inject humanist principles into our government, into our laws, into our communities, and take out things like coercive religion. You shouldn't be governed by Christianity. We still have a thing allegedly called the separation between church and state. Wouldn't it be nice if we actually had laws and lawmakers that upheld that promise?

[00:25:52] Well, the American Humanist Association is doing the work to make that reality. And if you're feeling just paralyzed lately, which hopefully you're not too paralyzed because you're listening to this podcast, so it's a good start. You're still engaging with the world. But if you'd like to really engage with the world, the American Humanist Association is embarking on a big project coming up on May 2nd. The AHA is hosting a ton of community events all over the country.

[00:26:18] We're talking supporting families impacted by ice, environmental cleanups, crafting with seniors. Think thousands of people showing up across the country to help other people in their communities. An extremely basic practice of humanist principles. And right now, in a time where we are all subjected to maximum cruelty from some of the loudest microphones in the country every single day,

[00:26:44] I think it's really great to get out and practice love for one another. If you would like to get involved on May 2nd, you can visit AmericanEmpathyProject.org. That is AmericanEmpathyProject.org. And if you'd like to learn more about the American Humanist Association, you can check that out at humanist.org slash fruity. Now, let's get back to the episode. The impossible math of $11,000.

[00:27:15] So I just want to reiterate how this whole stunt with DoorDash Grandma was framed around how no tax on tips saved this woman $11,000. $11,000. In the video of Sharon Simmons at the White House, Trump tells her he heard she, quote, picked up an extra $11,000 from no tax on tips. And he asks her if that's correct. And she says yes.

[00:27:40] In fact, she says she saved, quote, over $11,000 by not having to claim. The White House at White House tweeted, DoorDash hits the Oval Office with an emoji of fries. $11,000 refund delivered, all thanks to no tax on tips. Millions of drivers across America are leveling up this tax season.

[00:28:03] This $11,000 figure, the claim that Sharon Simmons saved $11,000 from her 2025 tax bill because of no tax on tips, this was the number heard around the world. This was, someone made a list somewhere, but basically every single major media outlet ran this number, which I think, frankly, is irresponsible. Which is crazy. But it is also the number that Trump and her said that she saved in this video.

[00:28:33] It's also mathematically impossible. It is impossible to save $11,000 annually from no tax on tips, not just for Sharon Simmons, but for literally anybody. I am going to try to explain this to the best of my ability. Like I said, this is not a finance podcast, but walk with me. Or should I say drive with me? Boo. DoorDash with me.

[00:28:59] All right, you two are going to have to tell me how I did, but I'm launching into the script I wrote about some tax numbers, and this gets into the weeds. For people who may live outside of the U.S. where taxes are done differently, here's the basics of what we do over here. You pay taxes every year based on how much money you made that year. You have to pay federal taxes to the U.S. government, state taxes to your state government, and local taxes to your local government. Generally speaking, the more money you make,

[00:29:28] the higher percentage of that total income you pay in taxes. Even though we know in practice the richest billionaires among us find ways to avoid paying their share completely, but that's for another time. Well, I guess I'm always talking about that. But whatever. Anyway. Then we have this thing called deductions, which is money you can subtract from your total taxable income for a variety of reasons. Like, say I bought a $1,000 camera to make this podcast, which is my job. That's a business expense. And therefore, as a freelancer,

[00:29:57] I can deduct that from my total taxable income at the end of the year. So if my original total taxable income is $10,000, now it's $9,000. That doesn't mean I save $1,000. It means I'm paying taxes on a smaller amount of money. And the actual amount I'm saving as a result of that is a fraction of the amount deducted from the total income, if that makes sense.

[00:30:25] Saving $1,000 in that situation would be called a tax credit, which is applied after you receive your tax bill. Deductions are applied before you receive your tax bill as part of the calculation for how much you owe and don't represent dollar-for-dollar savings. The bottom line is a $1,000 tax deduction doesn't mean you saved $1,000. And no tax on tips is a tax deduction, not a tax credit. Does that make sense so far?

[00:30:52] It's like that famous Schitt's Creek episode where David thinks... Yes, it is that. Yes, and people think this all the time. And if you're not like a freelancer or if you don't have to do complicated things with your taxes, I think a lot of people don't understand this because they hear like, oh, that's a tax deduction. That's a tax write-off. You hear these things and you're like, these people just aren't paying taxes. No, in the Schitt's Creek episode, David buys all of this stuff, like a lamp, random furniture, and he's like, they're tax write-offs. And his dad is like, you still have to pay taxes.

[00:31:21] You are just paying taxes on less income. It's very different. It is admittedly kind of confusing, but that is the perfect example. Yeah, so tipped workers are still reporting their tips as income. And that's why one issue here is that for people who are getting tax breaks on tipped income, it can make them lose eligibility to other tax credits such as the EITC. Right, right.

[00:31:51] Which is a whole, let's keep it as simple as possible. Okay, sorry. I thought we were a finance podcast. A bit fruity, more like a bit frynance. So what we know about Sharon Simmons is that her 2025 income was $22,000. She said this. And $11,000 of that were in tips. So right off the bat, she didn't save $11,000.

[00:32:20] $11,000 was just how much she made in tips. But let's focus right now on that total income of $22,000. According to federal tax law, if a couple is jointly making less than $31,500 per year, they owe $0 in federal taxes simply because they're not making enough money. We know Sharon's husband has stage 3 cancer, which she said has reduced his capacity to work.

[00:32:46] So if we were to assume that he isn't working at all, then Sharon and her husband would owe $0 in federal taxes in the first place. And therefore, no tax on tips, which only applies to federal taxes, would have saved her $0. Now, let's say her husband is still working and earning money. And let's say he's earning $40,000 a year, making their joint income $62,000.

[00:33:12] At that point, they are paying federal taxes, albeit at a very low rate, and can deduct the $11,000 Sharon earned from tips from their total income. At that tax rate, the no tax on tips policy would save them around $1,200, which is not $11,000. If her husband was making, say, $60,000 a year, and their joint income was then $82,000,

[00:33:41] then their no tax on tips savings would push to $1,300, which is not $11,000. Putting Sharon aside for a second, I want to ask, is it even possible to save $11,000 on no tax on tips? I wanted to find out. And the answer is no. Because let's say a worker earned the maximum amount of tips you can deduct based on this policy, which is $25,000. To actually pocket $11,000 off of that deduction,

[00:34:10] your federal tax rate would have to be 44%. 11 is 44% of 25. And guess what? A 44% tax rate does not exist. The highest federal tax bracket in 2025 is 37%. And at that rate, deducting $25,000 in tips from your annual income would save you a little over $9,000, which, say it with me, is not $11,000.

[00:34:40] I'm so sorry. I was about to say in tears again. I'm still stuck on. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. To even be in the 37% tax bracket as a married couple, you would have to have a combined income of more than $751,600 a year. Meaning. It's just not happening. Meaning Sharon's husband would have to have earned $729,600 in 2025.

[00:35:10] And this is assuming that Sharon earned $25,000 in tips, which she didn't. And even then, they would not qualify at that point for no tax on tips because if you earn more than $300,000 as a couple, you aren't eligible for the policy. So it is mathematically impossible to pocket $11,000 from this policy. It is also impossible to pocket $9,000 from this policy. The maximum amount.

[00:35:40] Oh, I had my calculator out. The maximum you can pocket in a year from no tax on tips. If, as a couple, you are making that tippy-top $300,000 a year and earning $25,000 on tips is about $6,000. Which, say it with me, is not $11,000. Yeah. You know, my question is,

[00:36:09] is Sharon secretly super rich because she's actually a lobbyist for DoorDash? Are they paying her a ton of money and her real job as a lobbyist? No, that's... Also, it does not erase the math that you just beautifully walked us through. Did that make sense? It did, yes. I'm kind of insecure about my ability to communicate that. I'm hoping people didn't tune out. No, no, no. TLDR.

[00:36:36] If you did tune out, TLDR, surprise, surprise, it's bullshit. Yeah. Okay, surprise, surprise, DoorDash grandma saving $11,000 in 2025 is totally BS. This is so reminiscent of Republican tax propaganda that they have been doing for decades. Because for decades, the Republican Party has sold the idea to working class Americans that the reason they are financially struggling is because they pay too much in taxes and that tax

[00:37:06] cuts are the way to prosperity and a better country. And decade after decade, administration after administration, the Republican government has cut so much from taxes. Tax cuts have been instituted across generations, and it has not meaningfully improved people's economic situations. In fact, they've only gotten worse. Why? Because you have rich billionaires like Donald Trump taking up all of the resources.

[00:37:31] I keep saying he made $3 billion last year, but it is inconceivable that the president of the United States profited that much while in office. It is so out of the ballpark that you have these oligarchs making so much money. It's like $6,000, the maximum savings that almost no one is making from no tax on tips doesn't even come close, not even like in the same arena as the amount of money that these guys are making for doing nothing.

[00:38:01] Mind you, they don't like they Donald Trump did not lift a finger to make that amount of money. They're expecting grandmothers of 10 to go out and work day and night this very taxing, grueling job. Have you ever like talk to a DoorDash delivery person? It is not an easy job. And then it's like, but that the $6,000 in savings that you won't make are supposed to make up for that. It won't. It doesn't even come close.

[00:38:26] It's also like the irony having Trump and Republicans champion this tipped income deduction part of the big, beautiful bill. While let's not forget the big, beautiful bill is all about massive cuts to health care, energy, food assistance programs. And the majority, the pretty much entirety of these tax cuts are for corporations and the ultra wealthy.

[00:38:56] So they are out here being like, look at this amazing no tax on tips. Isn't this awesome? I'm hoping that they dangle it in front of people's faces when it doesn't even apply to the majority of workers in this country. When the big, beautiful bill is so disastrous. Even if we were to pretend this $11,000 is real or, you know, that so many people are benefiting from the no tax on tips. They are being fucked over by Medicaid cuts.

[00:39:23] They're being fucked over by losing access to food assistance programs. This bill has fucked them thoroughly. Exactly. And that's why tax cuts don't work because they're going to advertise. Oh, look, look how much money you can save from this no tax on tips part of the big, beautiful bill, which first of all, they're lying about how much money you can actually save and what little you may have actually saved. You already are under on because you have to use it to pay for all of these social services that they cut. Yeah.

[00:39:49] This is why tax cuts haven't benefited people's lives. They've been Republicans. This has been their number one thing for decades and decades, decades. It hasn't worked. And it's like going back to the original premise of this, that she needs to door dash so that she can afford her husband's cancer surgery. All the money that the billionaires are stealing from America could pay for the surgery in the first place. Like you shouldn't have to work to pay for the cancer treatment at all, period.

[00:40:18] Because that money is literally evaporating and it's being stolen. And like that's the reality is like, to your point, Caroline, they're jangling keys in front of you like you can make $11,000 while they steal $11 bajillion dollars from like the money that could have gone toward these services. Right. Right. So after the White House visit took place and the $11,000 figure soared around the world, Sharon Simmons did a Fox News interview wherein she clarified that $11,000 was in fact how much

[00:40:47] she earned in tips, not how much she saved. She clarified in this interview that her actual savings were, quote, You know, I mean, if you really want to break down the numbers, I probably saved probably three to $4,000 with not having to pay. I still doubt that. Hmm. I got my calculator back out. Because for Sharon and her husband to have saved, let's go on the low end of that estimate,

[00:41:17] $3,000 in taxes on $11,000 of tips, they would need to have been in at least the 24% tax bracket. And even then it's shaky that they could save that much. But to be in that tax bracket, their combined income in 2025 would have had to have been more than $206,000, meaning Sharon's husband would have had to earn at least $184,000.

[00:41:42] What is most likely here is that Sharon and her husband saved $1,500 or less on no tax on tips. And that is plainly not enough to cover or even significantly reduce the cost of cancer treatment. For that reason, I feel terribly for them. And the thing is, is that if that means she made enough money to have to pay federal income tax on the tips,

[00:42:06] then that would mean she was subjected to Arkansas state income taxes. So anyway, the whole thing is it's all it's all bullshit because they lied from the get go by saying that she didn't have to claim this on her taxes. I saved over $11,000 by not having to claim. You do have to claim it on your taxes. You have to report your tips as income. It's about deductions, as we covered earlier.

[00:42:35] The average rent in the United States as of early 2026 is more than $1,500 a month. So even just like looking at your basic needs, these types of savings are not meeting like that very basic level of being able to provide adequate housing, adequate shelter. Like it is so dire for people making this amount of money in the United States. Like they have to rely on services to have their basic needs met. And this is not touching that problem. No.

[00:43:03] For the Trump administration to act like they can do no tax on tips and cut things like services for food insecurity, housing insecurity, Medicare, Medicaid. It is just so grotesque. It is so, so, so, so grotesque. And it does give the vibe that they're like laughing in our faces while destroying many, many, many people's lives. Right. Now, in another Fox News interview Sharon did the following day,

[00:43:28] she attempts to clarify once again that the $11,000 was how much she earned in tips. There's been misunderstandings about, you know, like my taxes and stuff. And I made over $11,000 in tips. Okay. And adds, quote, But our personal savings and everything on our taxes, that's kind of our business.

[00:43:57] I mean, I don't go around asking you guys, hey, what'd you get on your taxes, you know? And as soon as she tries to start sort of like weaseling out of this entire situation and saying, well, you know, how much we actually saved on our taxes is nobody's business. The Fox News anchor interrupts her and tells her to not listen to the haters and that she's a, quote, lovely Christian woman.

[00:44:24] You know, when I say that, you know, the $11,000, that is the amount of tips that I made. And so that's just... Got it. And Sharon, because of Donald Trump, you get to keep all of that $11,000. You get to spend that to help your husband get better. He has cancer or you get to use that for your 10 grandchildren or however you want. And it's nobody's business. And don't feel bad because there's some haters out there that will always hate anybody

[00:44:54] who is standing next to the president. You're a lovely Christian woman. You said your prayers. You love everybody on all sides of the aisle, all walks of life. You're just like everybody else. Most of America is like that. You live in Arkansas. You just want to have more years with your grandkids and your husband, and you're doing a great job. Thank you for not being political. Oh, classic. Listen, I generally agree that your taxes are nobody's business.

[00:45:22] But in this very specific instance, when you're being used as a mascot for predatory tax policy and as an advertisement for the Trump administration and DoorDash, and the whole thing is predicated on you saving a very specific amount on your taxes, well, no shade. But like maybe it's kind of all of our business now because like you made it such. I don't know. I'm confused.

[00:45:51] Did Sharon have a moment of clarity where she went, this is patently false? This is not true and I'm being used to pretend it is. I don't know if she had clarity around that specifically, but I do love the moment when she's with Trump and he's like, you don't want men on women's sports, do you? And she's like, I'm just here to talk about no tax on tips. Like there were moments of clarity happening for Sharon. They want to have men playing in women's sports.

[00:46:20] Do you think that men should play in women's sports? I really don't have an opinion on that. You don't. I'll bet you do. No, I'm here about no tax on tips. Right. He was trying to get her in on other propaganda. Yeah. And you could see she was uncomfortable. Yeah. And then this Fox News interview with her saying, well, that's my personal business,

[00:46:41] because doesn't that mean that she realizes that they are at best misrepresenting her situation here and at worst totally lying? And that's the moment when the host cuts in and assures her that she's doing the right thing by lying on behalf of the Trump administration. Don't worry about the haters. That's what a good Christian woman does is lie on behalf of the Trump administration. Tune out a bit fruity, the biggest haters out there.

[00:47:08] You really get the full breadth of like right wing grifter manufacturing psychosis in that teeny tiny clip. Yes. You know, it is my personal belief that this woman realized that it was all too late and that it had all gone too far as it was happening, particularly as you mentioned, because afterwards they held a press conference where she was standing next to Trump.

[00:47:34] And as you say, he just started invoking like random transphobia of like you want to get men out of women's sports. Right. And she goes, uh, and you can tell she's visibly uncomfortable. And in fact, she references that in the following day's Fox news interview. Did you expect so much backlash from the media and different people questioning your story? I didn't expect that much. No. Um, you know, I, I never really wanted this to be about me.

[00:48:03] Um, or I didn't want to be part of any of the decisive issues, um, because that's just not me. Um, you know, I, I love everybody. I love people on every side of the fence about different issues because, you know, that's how my parents brought me up. Um, you know, not to judge people.

[00:48:26] And so it's been really, it's, it's been kind of a, it, it's been kind of a hard, difficult thing for me because that's not how I was raised. And so it's, yeah, some of it's been hard to see and, and hard to read about. You know, Trump in real time was trying to use her for more than just no tax on tips propaganda.

[00:48:52] And even that you could tell she was, uh, not primed on and not comfortable with. Mm-hmm. And this brings me to the very widespread allegations that Sharon Simmons is a paid plant of MAGA. I would like to take a quick break from the show to give a big shout out to this podcast longest running sponsor, Blueland.

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[00:50:31] But no, Blueland is running a sale where a number of their products are up to 30% off at Blueland.com slash fruity. Go check it out. Thanks to Blueland. And now let's get back to the show. So one popular theory about Sharon that quickly circulated was that she's a paid plant for the Trump regime. Anonymous, the hacktivist organization posted to their many millions of Twitter followers. She's not even a DoorDash driver.

[00:51:01] She's a paid actor for Trump's propaganda machine. And then they had a picture of Sharon Simmons at another thing. Exactly. And this got 155,000 likes. And this was one of many, many. I mean, did you guys see the paid plant allegations? Oh, yeah. This is like the main thing I saw after the initial news broke. Right. If you were on like lefty internet, everyone was quickly pointing out that, oh, well, this woman was here at this time and here at this time. And she's been involved in other MAGA things and they're flying her around the country.

[00:51:31] So let's talk about that. The most frequently cited evidence for this claim is that Sharon Simmons also appears in footage of a 2025 hearing in Nevada, where Sharon testified as a proponent of the Big Beautiful Bill with a focus on how, as a DoorDash driver, the no tax on tips policy would help her family. This footage was tweeted at the time by Representative David Kustoff, a U.S. Republican representative from Tennessee,

[00:51:58] and Trump ally who was using Sharon's testimony to support the case for the Big Beautiful Bill to pass, which they were all voting on it at the time. Side by side photos of Sharon in Nevada last year and Sharon at the White House this year, while keeping in mind she currently lives in Arkansas, have circulated widely as evidence that she is being flown around by the Republican Party to do propaganda for them. And that maybe she isn't even a DoorDash-er. Now, I have a theory on this that I would like to explain to you guys.

[00:52:28] And I think this general idea that she's a paid plant is only half true. And I think what I understand to be the actual portrait of what's going on here is somehow sadder. Yeah. So here's the thing. Public records confirm that Sharon Simmons did live in Boulder City, Nevada last year, where she testified in favor of no tax on tips.

[00:52:53] Since then, at the end of last year, I believe, she moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas to be closer to her 10 grandkids. Sharon has been a DoorDasher for several years. She was DoorDashing for three years while she lived in Nevada and now continues to in Arkansas. So it isn't that she's making everything up or that she's a recurring actress that the GOP is flying around everywhere. Like, she did live there in 2025 when she was testifying in Nevada.

[00:53:21] What is true, though, is that DoorDash planned this White House PR stunt to advertise itself and to promote a tax policy that benefits DoorDash as a corporation, as we've already explained. As far as I can tell, someone at DoorDash found Sharon's 2025 testimony and reached out to her about a week before the event that just happened to see if she was willing to be the face of this no tax on tips McDonald's delivery stunt.

[00:53:47] I personally would be shocked if DoorDash didn't pay her some flat rate of maybe a few thousand dollars for making this appearance. We have no way of fully knowing. She is probably a paid actor in this specific instance. I mean, she's literally essentially just doing a commercial for them. But only because she was identified by someone at the company as someone who was already willing to do DoorDash's and the White House's dirty work.

[00:54:13] There's no evidence that Sharon Simmons is a secretly wealthy woman or that her backstory is fabricated or that she doesn't do DoorDash or that her husband doesn't have cancer. Yeah. What's more likely, I think, is that she's for years been an exploited worker at DoorDash. And through this stunt, they found a new way to exploit her all over again.

[00:54:36] And yeah, like she's carrying water for some really horrible people and has to take responsibility for that. But she was chosen to do that by those powerful people because she's shown herself to be vulnerable and needy in the first place. Sharon probably received more money from this than she saved from no tax on tips. And even still, I doubt, I doubt she's been relieved of the financial burdens of cancer treatment.

[00:55:03] And this is why I said, like, I think the real story is sadder because she's not really a paid actor, at least not to the conspiratorial extent that people think. Ultimately, she's a poor woman living in Arkansas before and after this whose vulnerability made her an asset to the corporation and to the government that will benefit far more from this than she will.

[00:55:26] Yeah. So I think people are confusing being a prop, being a plant, being a paid actor with not being a real person or a person who represents the majority of Americans' socioeconomic reality. And so it is sad because it doesn't matter if Sharon is real or not, which I believe she is. I believe she is a real person.

[00:55:55] I believe she is not somebody who's secretly rich. You know, we're going to see her pop up on some HBO show somewhere. I believe she's a real person. But there are so many Sharons in this country. There are so many people who every day are having to worry about not just how they're going to pay for their rent and food, but also pay for medical care. People who have gone into debt because of the cost of health care.

[00:56:22] Older people who are working at McDonald's and Walmart and door dashing and are gig workers because they can't afford to live and because social programs have been slashed and because their lives are getting just more expensive. And there is less support that is offered to counteract the rising costs.

[00:56:43] I don't think we should just go, oh, she's clearly fake because the people who this is for, they believe this or they see themselves in Sharon. They want to believe this. So it's better if you approach by explaining why this actually does not benefit Sharon and anyone else who sees their situation as comparable to Sharon's. You know what I mean?

[00:57:12] Yeah, I also think that like the reason why door dash and the Trump administration are using this woman is because this type of propaganda can be very effective. And you've seen this with a lot of conservative legislative efforts, legal efforts, lobbying efforts. You see it in terms of just like any operation that is really well funded. But particularly with these like really detrimental conservative efforts, what they do is they go out and they find the perfect people to represent their cause.

[00:57:42] And then they pay to fly them around to various legislators to testify about legislation. They put them in front of the media. They land really good interviews for them. And sometimes those people are paid and sometimes they are able to leverage it and become kind of like a grifter. A great example being like Riley Gaines, who was, you know, plucked out so that she could become the face of like no trans athletes. I don't think door dash grandma is going to be as have a successful like grifter arc. But you see this all the time.

[00:58:11] And once you sort of know what to look for, you see how like big money plays into these cases by like picking up little people and using them as the face. But a lot of it is very reminiscent of astroturfing and creating the impression that there is like organic support for these types of legislation. The opposite is true. There's organic like unionizing and organizing efforts among door dash drivers, among delivery people, among gig workers.

[00:58:39] That's not what the people with the money want you to see. They want you to see door dash grandma. Yeah. And I think also for those of us who have looked at a lot of situations like this, you start to learn that there are so many people like Sharon who become the subjects of these situations that are really puppeteered by people much more powerful and influential and wealthy than Sharon Simmons is.

[00:59:05] But by making some ordinary person the face of these things, usually for the sake of relating to larger audiences of people, these people ultimately just get exploited. Like I think this is true of a lot of people at the center of highly politicized Supreme Court cases. Yes. These people, they just get exploited. And look, this isn't to say that like Sharon Simmons is like I said, she's not she's not off the hook. She carried water for some pretty evil people here.

[00:59:35] But also, if you listen to that Fox News interview she did the following day, you can tell that she's very distraught by what is now happening as a result of the door dash delivery at the White House. I got to say, you know, she was what I assume is paid some amount of money to lie about how much money she actually was able to save with this shitty policy. Yeah. And she did what she was told. And now she's at the center of a media storm.

[01:00:03] She's still poor. And she's still taking care of her husband with stage three cancer. And I'm just like, goddamn, like all the smoke, all the smoke that you have for this woman, while a fraction of it might be deserved, just like put it on door dash and put it on the White House, you know?

[01:00:23] That I think that's such a good point because it goes back to what we were saying with like anti tipping discourse, which is at the end of the day, so much of this sentiment just reinforces like stigmas against working class people. And like at the end of the day, working class people tend to be like the punching bags over and over and over again. And the labor that they do gets devalued, even though it's something that many of us have come to rely on and expect as a convenience.

[01:00:48] So it's like at the end of the day, like door dash workers and anyone in these gig economies deserves to make a living wage. They don't need like some weird Byzantine tax cut program that's not really going to benefit them very much in the end. What they deserve is to make a living wage and to not have to work into your grandma years so that your husband can afford cancer surgery.

[01:01:13] Like these are the systemic issues that are wrong and no tax on tips is not going to solve them. I love having you on my podcast because you use words like Byzantine. And if people think these jobs are so easy, it's like, believe me, after a few shifts, you would not want to be doing this anymore. Like if you haven't done it, you're up on your feet all day, you're sweating, you don't get time off. You have to interface with nasty people.

[01:01:43] Delivery people face like high rates of verbal harassment, sexual harassment. Like these are jobs that do deserve dignity. And like, again, like just they deserve to be paid fairly. And door dash can afford to do that. But instead of paying their workers fairly, they're paying for these really expensive PR stunts to try to shove that responsibility onto someone else.

[01:02:04] Yes. And what Democrats, since that's the opposition party in this country, what they need to stress here is that corporations are paying poverty wages. And these policymakers, which the problem is it includes a lot of the Democrats, are offering Band-Aid solutions. So this is this is something that the Democrats aren't doing.

[01:02:25] But to appeal to these voters, they have to explain that this is what's happening and then show how they are fighting against that. Yep. Tax the rich. Tax the rich. Raise the corporate tax rate like Zoran Mamdani is attempting to do here in New York City. I will end on the note of, you know, no tax on tips is most certainly not going to save us. It's not going to save workers.

[01:02:55] It has not saved Sharon Simmons. And even she seems halfway willing to admit that. But while we are still living in this fucked up tipping culture, please tip. I know it's annoying and ultimately everyone listening to this can make those decisions for themselves. But my rule of thumb is just like, look, if you can pay $7 for an iced latte, you can tip 50 cents.

[01:03:19] If you can pay $29 for, you know, a fucking $15 thing that you ordered out because DoorDash added on 1600 different fees, which is a whole other thing. Fuck all of these companies. But the bottom line is, if you can pay all that money, just tip your delivery person. Yeah. And don't be mad at the workers. Be mad at these corporations. And if you made $3 billion last year, you should be tipping your DoorDash delivery person at least $10,000. $10,000.

[01:03:51] Kat and Caroline, thank you so much for joining me on this surprise episode that we were going to have a blank space this week. I was going to be napping, but I'm so happy we made this. And I'm so happy that I got to show off a little bit of my tax chops. There you go. This is for your dad. I felt kind of sexy talking about numbers like that.

[01:04:18] A bit for me listeners are like, oh, God, is this going to be the direction of the podcast now? A bit finance. Oh, the collective groan. I just heard everyone listening to this, mate. I mean, honestly, we kind of do need this type of finance podcast out there because all the finance podcasts are all these crypto right wing bros who are like, here's how I made a million dollars. And it's just exploiting people.

[01:04:48] How to get ahead financially with a bit frugal. Kat and Caroline, where can people find more of you? I am at SpitfireNews.com. That is my newsletter. And you can also follow me on Blue Sky and Instagram. And I stream on Twitch in the evenings starting around six o'clock Pacific time. And then I'm also on Twitter, Instagram, most of these platforms as Caroline Kwan.

[01:05:16] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you would like to leave a tip, you can do 20, 25 or 30. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But if you do want to support the show, you can do that over on Patreon. Matt Lieb and I have a new episode out over there on Israel's princess of propaganda, Noah Tishby. It's an episode I've been wanting to make for so long.

[01:05:46] She's so infuriating. And we did a deep dive into her. It's up there. The link for that will be in the episode description. I love you so much. Happy tax season. And until now. I don't know. And until next time, stay fruity.