Trump embraces harsh immigration rhetoric during Las Vegas rally

LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump descended into scorching Sin City on Sunday for his first rally since becoming a convicted felon, wielding harsh rhetoric about illegal immigration and occasionally touching on his own run-ins with the law.

Speaking at an outdoor event at a park about six miles from the Las Vegas Strip, Trump called Nevada, a key battleground state, a “dumping ground” for unauthorized immigrants and slammed President Joe Biden for unleashing a “nightmare” through his border policies that he argued were “totally destroying” Black and Hispanic Americans.

“The people of Nevada have had a front-row seat to Joe Biden's evil and criminal obliteration of our southern border,” Trump told the crowd. “It was criminal what he's done.”

The speech came just days after Biden announced his executive order on immigration to close the U.S.-Mexico border when border crossings exceed 2,500 people a day. Trump dismissed the order as a “little plan” that was “pro-invasion, pro-child trafficking, pro-women trafficking, pro-human trafficking, pro-drug dealers and all the death they bring and pro-illegal immigration.” He raised instances of violent crimes allegedly committed by people unauthorized to be living in the U.S.

“It’s weak, it’s ineffective, it’s bullshit what he signed,” Trump said, before his supporters erupted into a chant of, “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.”

On the same day he made these comments, the Trump campaign launched the rebranding of its Latino outreach effort, from “Latinos for Trump” to “Latino Americans for Trump” — in a state where Latinos represent a critical and influential voting bloc and as Republicans continue to make inroads among Latinos.

Trump has promised if reelected that he’ll carry out mass deportations, end birthright citizenship and reinstitute his prohibition on people entering the U.S. from certain Muslim-majority nations. He also in February effectively encouraged Republicans in Congress to reject a bipartisan immigration deal backed by Biden.

Trump at one point on Sunday referred to the first family as the “Biden crime family” and raised the fact that Biden kept classified documents after his vice presidency, though a special counsel did not recommend charges. (Trump is currently charged with allegedly hoarding classified documents and obstructing the investigation into the matter.) Conversely, Trump downplayed convictions of people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, calling them victims and “J6 warriors.”

Trump’s rally in Las Vegas caps a four-day swing through the West Coast and Southwest. On Thursday, Trump spoke at a town hall in Phoenix, where he railed against Biden’s border actions, and then separately spent several days in California wooing donors. He also held a high-dollar fundraiser in Vegas on Saturday night.

His increasingly rabble-rousing language on undocumented immigration — where at one point on Sunday he claimed “the invasion is apocalyptic,” according to transcribed remarks shared ahead of his speech — highlights that it will likely be a major issue in the remaining months of the 2024 election.

Since his conviction, Trump in TV interviews has left open the possibility that he might seek retribution against his political enemies if reelected, though Sunday he only briefly touched on the matter and mostly boasted about how much fundraising had poured into his campaign as a result of the verdict.

“When he indicted me over nothing, they opened up a whole new box,” he said of Biden, before then listing the other indictments he faces in multiple jurisdictions. “They have weaponized the Department of Justice.”

The DOJ has brought two federal cases against Trump while his New York conviction stemmed from a criminal case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump is also facing state criminal charges in Georgia related to a sprawling racketeering case.

The Vegas event was Trump’s first rally since a jury found him guilty on May 30 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records about payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. His first pre-sentencing hearing is set for Monday.

Biden won Nevada by roughly 2.5 points in 2020, but today Trump is leading Biden by more than 5 points, according to the 538 polling average, in a state that has among the highest unemployment rates and gas prices in the U.S. Should Trump carry the state in November, he would be the first GOP presidential candidate to do so since George W. Bush 20 years ago.

“If we win Nevada, we win the whole thing,” Trump said during his speech, which stretched over an hour.

But the newest aspect of Trump’s rally was promising that, if elected, he wouldn’t charge taxes on tips — an announcement that drew huge applause in a state whose economy is heavily reliant on tourism and hospitality.

“We will throw out Bidenomics and replace it with MAGAnomics,” he said.

Trump also repeatedly boasted that he could handle the desert heat, which reached 99 degrees, despite “sweating like a dog” and complaining about how his teleprompter didn’t work. Throughout his speech. he mocked Biden’s mental acuity, at one point doing a dramatic impersonation of the president’s walk, and another point mockingly running down a list of reporters to call on and hesitating over a question about what kind of ice cream he liked.

“He’s a corrupt, very dumb person. He’s a low-IQ individual,” Trump said of Biden, though he quickly clarified that the criticism against his rival — who is just 3.5 years older than he is — was not rooted in concerns about his age.

“There’s just something missing there,” he said. “There always has been.”

In response, the Biden campaign questioned where Latino voters were at his rally. “All we saw today was a wannabe dictator spouting his trademark hatred for our community, doubling down attacking immigrants and espousing the same racist tropes against Venezuelans,” said Hispanic Media Director Maca Casado, referring to comments Trump made that people coming to the U.S. had been in jails and mental facilities. She also pointed to his controversial immigration policies as president, including his child separation policy.

“Attacking Latinos is ‘good politics’ in Trump’s eyes,” she added. “Latinos deserve a president who is focused on creating economic opportunity for all of us and making our communities safer. If today showed our community anything, it’s this: we have to reelect Joe Biden.”

Trump supporters, many of whom arrived hours before the rally started, struggled to tolerate the heat and began trickling out of the park about 45 minutes into the speech. But many waited in long lines to enter the event, where the campaign provided water bottles and misting fans, and one of the food trucks sold shaved ice and soft-serve ice cream.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spoke as people entered the park, warned that Trump’s supporters were “not going to tolerate” the recent conviction. “The man that I worship was also a convicted felon,” she said, referring to Jesus. The crowd erupted in chants of “bullshit” over the criminal convictions.

Attendees told POLITICO they didn’t think the verdict would hurt Trump and believed the former president’s accusations that the prosecution had been politically motivated. Some attendees wore shirts that said, “I’m voting for the convicted felon.”

“It’s what they’re chanting — it’s bullshit,” said Trump supporter Rick Welter, 58. “It’s a sham.”

Sunday’s rally was the first Trump event for Welter, who works in medical insurance, though he’d voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and said the conviction made him more motivated to turn out on Sunday. He and his sister-in-law both said they were concerned about illegal immigration and the economy. “We would not be out here in this hell hot if we didn't believe it was important,” said his sister in law, Nanette Welter.

Trump did not use his platform to explicitly endorse in the Republican Senate primary in Nevada, which is set for Tuesday, though at one point he said, “You have a good guy named Brown here” referencing retired Army Captain Sam Brown, one of the Republican candidates. One of his rivals, former Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter, was also present at the rally. Toward the end of the speech Trump broadly urged his supporters to vote in the primary. Later Sunday, Trump endorsed Brown in a post on social media.