Steve Marcus
Dawn Christmore (left) and Diana Lee, of San Diego, California, cool off in front of Mr. Trump as they stand in line at a Donald Trump rally in Sunset Park on Sunday, June 9, 2024.
Published Sunday, June 9, 2024 at 2:27 p.m.
Updated Sunday, June 9, 2024 at 7:29 p.m.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump began lining up in Sunset Park in Las Vegas at 9 a.m. today, three hours before Trump was due to take the stage at a rally to promote his presidential candidacy.
The scene was common at other rallies, with supporters wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and some holding signs promoting Republican conspiracy theories about past elections.
But there was one notable difference at this rally: the heat.
Trump chose to have his supporters spend hours in the triple-digit Las Vegas heat, showing their loyalty to his reelection campaign by drinking lots of fluids, seeking shade and competing for space under misters. Six people were taken to nearby hospitals with heatstroke, Clark County said.
Trump spoke for about an hour, primarily focusing on President Joe Biden's time in office, including criticizing his handling of the southern border and saying Biden's immigration policies were turning Nevada into a “garbage dump.”
They will face off in a presidential rematch in November.
“For three and a half years, Nevadans have had a front row seat to Joe Biden's evil and criminal destruction of our southern border,” Trump said. “What he's signed does nothing and makes it easier. In my opinion, it opens the border even further.”
It was his first rally there since winning the state's presidential primary in February and his first since a New York jury convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In his speech, Trump dismissed the conviction as a political ploy against him.
Nevada, one of six battleground states likely to decide the election, relies on tourism and Mr Trump said he would argue for no tax on tips as an appeal to service industry workers.
“This has been a contentious issue for years,” Trump said. “You do great service and you take care of people, and I think this is a well-deserved reward.”
Trump's insistence that tips be earned has not been well received by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has been a powerful force in Nevada elections thanks to its efforts to mobilize voters to support Democratic candidates.
“For decades, the Culinary Arts Union has defended the rights of tipped workers and fought against unfair taxation,” union secretary-treasurer Ted Papageorghiou said in a statement. “Relief for tipped workers is undoubtedly needed, but Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and the wild campaign promises of a convicted felon.”
Trump has repeatedly called Biden incompetent and evil, but said he would not have used those words if he had not been indicted. Although Trump's felony conviction was in a New York state trial, not a federal trial, Trump still said the Justice Department was “weaponized” against him.
“When he indicted me on no basis, they opened a whole new box, and I got indicted again and again,” Trump said.
The former president visited another battleground state, Arizona, last week, where 11 people were hospitalized with heatstroke during an event there, and there were at least two calls for medical care just after 8:30 a.m. Sunday as supporters waited for the Nevada event to begin.
Clouds had spread throughout the day and temperatures had dropped as the event began, but several ambulances and medical personnel were on standby in anticipation of high temperatures.
Neither the heat nor the felony charges deterred Trump's supporters, who turned out by the hundreds for a rally on Sunday, and who appear to have grown even more supportive of the former president since his conviction.
Jesus Marquez, a conservative consultant and former commissioner of Trump's White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, said Trump's beliefs are well-received among Latino voters who have experienced “political persecution” in Latin American countries.
“For example, my parents have witnessed political persecution in countries across Mexico, Central and South America, and when they come here and see what they're doing with President Donald Trump, it resonates with them,” Marquez said.
Speakers at the event also included Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, who said he and others came to Nevada to “admire” Trump.
McDonald's loyalty to Trump also includes his participation in a fake electoral college scheme aimed at overturning Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, a coordinated effort with Republicans in six other battleground states that has led to multiple lawsuits.
“We will walk through hell to put Donald J. Trump back in the White House and take back America,” McDonald said.
Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association and a Metropolitan Police officer, announced the association's support for Trump during the event. Grammas cited the former president's visit to Metro headquarters after the October 1 shooting as a key moment in Trump's support for police.
President Trump reiterated his support for those arrested during the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, calling them “hostages” and praising their actions, suggesting that Capitol Police opened the building's doors to trap the rioters.
“No one has ever been treated worse than the J-6 hostages,” Trump said. “They were warriors, but they were victims first and foremost.”
Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown is interviewed at a Donald Trump campaign rally, Sunday, June 9, 2024, in Sunset Park.
President Trump endorses Sam Brown for U.S. Senate seat
Sen. Sam Brown's campaign in Nevada was finally endorsed by President Trump in a social media post late Sunday.
Earlier in the day, he came close to endorsing Brown, saying at a rally that “Nevada has a great man in Brown,” but made no mention of the primary race against Jeff Gunter and others.
The Republican winner will face incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) in November.
A poll of 1,000 Nevada voters conducted in late April found Rosen with a substantial lead over potential Republican opponents.
According to an Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey, Rosen is leading Brown 45% to 37%, with 18% undecided. In a hypothetical matchup with Gunter, Rosen is leading 47% to 33%, with 20% undecided, the survey found.
“Sam Brown has finally received the endorsement from Trump that he desperately sought and has publicly begged for for the last six months,” state Rep. Daniel Monroe Moreno, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party, said in a statement.
“This endorsement makes it clear that Brown will always put partisan politics and far-right MAGA policies, such as banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, phasing out Social Security and Medicare, and turning Nevada into a nuclear waste dump, above what's right for Nevada.”
