Former President Donald J. Trump stood in a scorching Las Vegas park on Sunday and made a direct appeal to working-class voters, promising to end the tip tax on hospitality workers.
But beyond that suggestion, there was little at Trump's rally to suggest that his new felon status had changed his message. And when Trump's teleprompter apparently stopped working, his speech, which his campaign advisers touted as focusing on the local concerns of Nevada voters, devolved into boilerplate stories and clichés.
“I don't have a teleprompter. I never had one to begin with,” Trump said after the roughly 15-minute speech, which also included excerpts of prepared remarks provided to reporters by his campaign. “So maybe that means I can do a better job going forward.”
Trump has repeatedly complained about not having a teleprompter, despite repeatedly bragging that he can deliver lengthy speeches without one.
His remarks, which lasted about an hour, seemed unfocused as he repeated familiar themes including electric vehicles, immigration, the four criminal cases filed against him and a scathing attack on President Biden's physical and mental health.
Trump again broadly described immigrants who cross the border illegally as violent criminals and mentally ill, and recited “The Snake,” a staple poem he has used since 2016 to discuss the threat illegal immigration poses to the country.
He continued to revive baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and baselessly asserted that Democrats would try to steal it in November, sowing doubt about the general election months before a single vote had been cast.
“Don't let them cheat,” he told the Nevada crowd. “Watch out and vote until the very end.”
Trump again praised the mob of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling them “J6 warriors” and suggesting they had legitimate reasons to try to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election, saying they were somehow “trapped” that day.
“They were warriors, but really, more than anything, they're victims of what happened,” Trump said. “All they were doing was protesting a stolen election.”
Trump had little to say about his recent Manhattan conviction on 34 felony counts, lamenting that he was indicted four times last year as a “disgrace,” but many at the rally still wore shirts that read “Vote for Convicted Felons.”
Trump spoke at length about immigration, as he did at a town-hall-style forum in Phoenix last week, calling Biden's border policies an “all-out war” on Black and Hispanic Americans.
Trump again criticized Biden's recent executive orders aimed at stopping illegal crossings at the border with Mexico, calling them “weak,” “ineffective” and “crap,” using expletives.
In response, the crowd began chanting expletives, just as Trump's supporters had done when he used the same phrase in Arizona. “The word seems to be catching on a little bit,” Trump said approvingly. (The same expletive was uttered three times in response to Trump's remarks by Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who spoke before Trump took the stage.)
At a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, the Trump campaign formally launched a Latino outreach effort known as “Latinos for Trump,” with many Hispanic Americans speaking before Trump.
Nevada has a large Hispanic population and polls have shown Mr Trump's popularity among working-class and Hispanic voters in the state, and the Trump campaign is seeking to capitalise on their dissatisfaction with Mr Biden's economic policies.
Linda Fornos, a Las Vegas resident who immigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but was disappointed with the administration. “I've long believed in the Democratic Party's promise to create more opportunity for the Latino community,” Fornos said.
It was a direct appeal to this group, which has a large presence in the Las Vegas area, when Trump pledged to end the tip tax on restaurant and hospitality workers. “If I'm president, I'm not going to have a tip tax,” he said.
After the rally, the Culinary Workers Union, a key member of the state's Democratic coalition, denounced Trump's proposal as empty.
“Relief for tipped workers is certainly needed, but Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and the wild campaign promises of a convicted felon,” Ted Papageorge, secretary-treasurer of the 60,000-member union, said in a statement.
Trump's rally in the key battleground state of Nevada wrapped up a multi-day Western visit that began with a forum hosted in Phoenix on Thursday by the conservative group Turning Point Action.
At least 11 people attending an indoor event were taken to hospitals for treatment of heatstroke after record-breaking temperatures hit Phoenix. The Trump campaign took steps to avoid a similar problem in Las Vegas, where the rally was held outdoors but where the heat was less intense. At least six people were taken to hospitals from the event on Sunday, according to the Clark County Fire Department.
After the Phoenix speech, Trump attended three fundraisers in California and one in Las Vegas. Chris LaCivita, one of Trump's two campaign managers, said the campaign raised about $27.5 million at the four events, though that figure cannot be independently verified until campaign documents are released in the coming months.