Trump comes out for a 38 per cent boost in the minimum wage – to $10 per hour – as he says Bernie Sanders 'lied' by saying he would let states lower it

Donald Trump went to war with Sen. Bernie Sanders over the federal minimum wage on Tuesday night, calling him a liar for claiming a day earlier that he would support allowing states to lower the wage floor for Americans.

The billionaire Republican for the first time seemed to publicly support a $10 per hour federal minimum, a 38 per cent increase over the current $7.25, while allowing that some states 'are going to raise it higher than that.'

Sanders had claimed in his Democratic National Convention speech Monday night that Trump 'does not support raising the federal minimum wage of seven-and-a-quarter an hour, a starvation wage. ... He believes that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below seven-and-a-quarter.'

Trump minced no words in an interview Tuesday with Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, saying: 'He lied last night.'

'I mean, it was a total lie,' Trump insisted. 'And everybody said it. In fact, some of the folks on your network said, "Wow, that was really a lie".'

'I believe it should be raised,' Trump declared. 'But when Bernie Sanders said that I want to go less than what the minimum wage [is] – I mean, honestly Bill, these people are lying so much. And every fact checker said, "Trump never said that." I never did say it.'

In a cryptic moment, Trump said of the federal minimum: 'I would leave it, and raise it somewhat. You need to help people, and I know it's not very Republican to say but you need to help people.'

But he insisted Sanders was wrong to suggest a President Trump would lower the federal minimum, the only scenario that would allow for states to drop their own below $7.25.

'He said that I want to go less than minimum wage,' Trump said. 'This is a new one, because I'm the one Republican that said in some cases we have to go more than the minimum wage.'

Pressed to pick a target number for a new national minimum hourly wage, Trump picked $10.

'I would say 10,' he said, 'but with the understanding that somebody like me is going to bring back jobs. I don't want people to be in that 10 dollar category for very long.'

'Let the states make the deal,' he urged, while complaining that 'they're not doing that for the most part.'

'Let the states make the determination,' Trump reiterated later, citing a federalist point of view that allows different wage floors for regions of the country with different costs of living.

'It's very expensive to live in New York,' he offered as an example, 'and they need more than, you know, seven, eight, nine dollars. So you go with the states and let the states make the determination.'

Trump cited the case of a friend who employs workers 'on an incentive basis,' rewarding good performance with raises.

That friend, he said, believed that by mandating a higher minimum wage without making workers earn the boost, 'they already get the incentive.'

Sanders likely based his claim on a May 8 NBC News interview with Trump, when he disagreed with the concept of a federal government-driven minimum.

'No, I'd rather have the states go out and do what they have to do,' he said then. 'And the states compete with each other ... I like the idea of let the states decide.'

Moments later, he said: 'I think people should get more. I think they're out there. They're working. It is a very low number.'

'I don't know how you live on $7.25 an hour,' Trump said. 'But I would say let the states decide.'

A desire for congressional action to raise the minimum wage is a change from Trump's positions early in the Republican primary process.

He said in an August 2015 MSNBC interview that 'aving a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country.'

Three months later he told a Milwaukee, Wisconsin debate audience that wages are generally 'too high' in America. Asked if he would argue for a higher minimum wage, he said: 'I would not do it.'

On the same day he spoke to NBC two months ago, Trump told ABC News that 'I think people have to get more' than the $7.25 minimum.

Did that represent an evolution in his thinking?

'Well, sure it's a change,' he said. 'I'm allowed to change. You need flexibility.'