Three days after nearly a dozen people were treated for heat-related symptoms at an Arizona town hall he held in record-shattering heat, Donald Trump complained jokingly to a Las Vegas crowd at a similarly sweltering rally about how no one worries about him.
âThey never mention me. Iâm up here sweating like a dog,â he said. â[The] Secret Service said we have to make sure everyone is safe. I said, âWhat about me?â We never thought of that. They donât think about me. Iâm working my ass off. Iâm working hard.â
Temperatures in Vegas hovered around 100 degrees on Sunday. At least one person collapsed at the outdoor rally, prompting the people around her to bellow for medical aid and a Secret Service agent to come sprinting over, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
âItâs 110 [degrees], but it doesnât feel like it to me,â the former president, decked out in a sports jacket and red MAGA hat, had said moments earlier.
The medical incidents in Arizona resulted in the hospitalization of 11 people who had lined up in the sun for hours to see Trump speak, with local fire officials describing their treatment as precautionary. The Trump campaign scrambled to better prepare for Vegas, hiring extra medics, prepping thousands of water bottles, and setting up misting fans and cooling stations around the venue, according to the Associated Press.
The former president encouraged anyone in the crowd feeling the effects of the heat to seek help. âIf anybody gets tired, you let me know,â he said. âAnd if anybody goes down, if you start going down, we have people. Theyâll pick you up right away. Theyâll throw water.â
Riffing off the cuff even more than usual, the former president returned more than once to the subject of teleprompters, which he complained were not working at the rally.
âI pay all this money to teleprompter people, and Iâd say 20 percent of the time they donât work,â he bellyached. âThe thingâs waving around, they canât tie it a little bit tighter? So weâre all in this togetherâjust a mess!â
As has become his habit, Trump also name-checked his âJ6 warriors,â praising them for bravely attacking the U.S. Capitol in his name.
âThey were warriors, but they were really, more than anything else, victims of what happened,â he remarked. âThe police say, âGo in.â What a setup that was.â
And speaking of setups, the former president had plenty to say about his recent legal woes, whining that heâd been âindicted, indicted, and indicted againâ across the country âlike a ping-pong ball.â He was convicted last month of 34 charges of falsifying business records in New York, and faces further criminal proceedings in Florida, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
âA disgrace, a disgrace,â Trump said Sunday. He singled out Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting him on federal charges of mishandling classified documents, calling him âa dumb son of a bitch.â
He also promised to roll out a policy that would exempt service workersâ tips from taxationâand later posted a screed to his Truth Social account about it.
âIt was my idea that Tips should not be taxed, and only I will GET IT DONE - And do it IMMEDIATELY upon my return to the White House,â he wrote.
âBiden could never, and will never, get done what Iâve proposed - Just like he never got Student Loan Forgiveness done. With Biden, itâs ALL TALK, AND NO ACTION.â
The rally in Nevada, a key battleground state, marks his first since being found guilty. The former president launched a fundraising blitz off the back of his conviction, which he bragged about on Sunday.
âLargest fundraiser in the period of one week than anyone has ever had,â he claimed, referencing the $141 million his campaign and the Republican National Committee said theyâd raised in May. A significant portion of the financial windfall was donated to him in the first 24 hours after the New York verdict, his campaign added.
It was reported earlier on Sunday that Trump was scheduled to appear virtually for a pre-sentencing interview with a probation officer on Monday. He is set to be sentenced in the hush money case on July 11.