Donald Trump will hold his first campaign event in the West since his historic conviction in his hush money trial in New York last month on Sunday.
The former president has been on the road nonstop, making stops at high-dollar fundraisers in California and an Arizona campaign town hall before heading to Las Vegas. He spent Saturday night at a Las Vegas event put on by his old friend and ally, construction equipment magnate Don Ahern.
At a pivotal point in his campaign, Trump embarks on an expedition to the West. After being convicted on 34 felony counts connected to a hush money conspiracy to pay off a porn star before of the 2016 election, the former president is attempting to redirect the focus to his general election message following a seven-week-long criminal trial.
In an effort to reach out to Hispanic voters more effectively before November’s election, the Trump team is said to be launching a new alliance called “Latino Americans for Trump” during his visit to Sin City. There was serious consideration given to launching the new program in Nevada.
Even while Hispanics have historically voted Democratic, recent polls show that they are leaning more toward Trump. With a large Latino electorate in Nevada, Trump might win the crucial battleground state and maybe the presidency if he can win over some of these people. Joe Biden narrowly won Nevada by two points in 2020, continuing a streak of four consecutive years of Democratic support for the presidential contender.
“Some of us believe that we might be better positioned in Nevada [this cycle] than we are even in Georgia,” said a Trump associate speaking to AWN.
The COVID-19 epidemic was cited by Trump campaign sources as the main cause for their optimism. The pandemic had a disproportionate impact on Nevada because of the state’s reliance on the hospitality and tourist industries.
The state’s influential Culinary Workers Union, which has historically collaborated closely with Democrats as a component of a huge get-the-vote operation orchestrated by the late Nevada Senator Harry Reid, is another potential partner, according to a senior aide. Due to their votes to repeal cleaning regulations imposed on the casino business during the COVID-19 pandemic, the union unendorsed multiple Democratic state lawmakers last month.
At a pivotal phase
According to senior Trump advisors who spoke with AWN, Trump is anticipated to address immigration, crime, and the economy during his speech in Las Vegas.
Several fronts have hit Las Vegas hard, but rising food prices, housing expenses, and homeownership have all taken a particularly heavy toll. “Over there, it’s a really big issue,” one of the advisers stated.
But whether Trump can maintain his messaging is still up in the air.
Trump immediately began railing against his conviction during Thursday’s town hall in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action. He referred to the verdict as “rigged” and demanded that the courts reverse it.
Trump warned the audience that the nation might collapse unless the appellate courts resolved the issues at hand.
Trump has been quite forthright in his promises to seek revenge against his political opponents if he is elected president in a string of interviews over the past week.
“It takes time to get even. Trump made the statement during an interview with Dr. Phil, a psychologist named Phil McGraw. “And vengeance is sometimes justifiable. The truth is, Phil, I must tell you. On occasion, it is possible.
While addressing at the Phoenix town hall, Trump remained mostly on topic, delving deeply into immigration, which Trump’s staff sees as a major weakness for Biden in the run-up to the November election.
Last week, Biden made an executive announcement that grants him the power to close the US-Mexico border to asylum seekers who cross unlawfully above a certain threshold each day. This could be an effort to remedy that vulnerability. In his Phoenix speech, Trump blasted Biden over the decision on many occasions, describing it as “bullsh*t” and pledging to undo the new asylum restrictions if he were to be reelected.
The role of the Senate
With Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen running for reelection, Nevada is hosting not just a highly anticipated presidential race but also one of the most closely contested Senate races in the nation. Trump has not yet made his official endorsement in the state’s GOP Senate primary, which is getting uglier by the day. According to sources, it is looking less and less certain that he will do so before Tuesday’s intraparty voting.
Retired Army captain Sam Brown, who suffered terrible burns from an Afghan roadside bomb, has been putting pressure on Trump to support him. The “Clear Choices of Nevada’s Republican Voters and Donors” were Brown and the former president, according to a social media post by Trump in April. The leader of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, Montana Senator Steve Daines, personally pushed Brown to run, and Trump loyalists have criticized him for his links to mainstream Republicans. On the contrary, they have pushed for Trump’s former ambassador to Iceland, Jeff Gunter, to receive support from the former president.
Unlike Brown, Gunter was supposed to go to Trump’s fundraiser on Saturday. Brown supported Ahern during his failed 2022 bid for the Republican nomination for the other Senate seat in the state. Brown’s gathering was sponsored by Ahern at his posh boutique hotel. This cycle, though, Ahern has endorsed Gunter and urged Trump to do the same.
Risky circumstances
With predicted highs of 104 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, Trump’s campaign—which has been increasingly staging outdoor rallies—is preparing for brutal heat.
An official from Trump’s campaign has stated that in order to ensure that rallygoers have enough water, the campaign is boosting the number of emergency medical personnel stationed there, and has also brought additional misting fans.
According to the official, the campaign will supply over 38,000 water bottles, 20 Power Breezer misting fans scattered around the Sunset Park venue in Las Vegas, one air-conditioned cooling tent, and many pop-up umbrella tents. Another measure to shorten security lineups is the installation of additional metal detectors.
Twelve individuals were sent to the hospital from Trump’s campaign rally in Phoenix owing to heat-related illness; a Phoenix Fire Department official informed AWN that this prompted the enhanced safety measures.
