5 takeaways from Donald Trump’s Las Vegas rally

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump continued to denounce the influx of immigrants into the country at a rally in Las Vegas, just days after the first and possibly only presidential debate between him and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Friday’s rally at the Expo at World Market Center was his first rally in Las Vegas since Harris became his opponent, and he attacked his new opponent at length.

“Get everyone you know to vote,” he told the crowd during his fourth visit to Nevada this year. “We want a landslide that is too big to rig. On Nov. 5, we will save America. We will rescue our middle class. We will restore our borders like they have not been restored in a long time. We will put America first and we will take back our country.”

Speaking for over an hour, Trump hit the major issues of his campaign, from immigration to the economy, as well as going on unscripted tangents, from President Joe Biden wearing a MAGA hat to the debate moderators whom he called fake.

1. He hit heavily on immigration.

With immigration one of voters’ biggest issues and a sore political spot for the Biden-Harris administration, which rolled back Trump-era immigration policies, the former president continued to highlight problems at the border and repeated anti-immigrant rhetoric about immigrants causing crime and “destroying our country.”

Trump said there are millions of immigrants invading the country, coming from prisons and mental institutions, and talked about Venezuelan gangs taking over apartments in Colorado and Haitian immigrants taking over Springfield, Ohio. He did not repeat the debunked claim he made during the debate that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets.

Aurora, Colorado, police arrested 10 alleged members of a criminal organization from Venezuela in different incidents dating back to February, according to a Facebook post shared by the department on Wednesday.

“Our country is under invasion just like an army,” he said.

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that immigrants are 60 percent less likely to commit a crime than people born in the U.S.

The campaign showed AI-generated images claiming the dangers of immigrants that said a girl was raped by an illegal immigrant. He also showed a slide of a chart showing the number of immigrants entering the country, a slide he had turned to look at during the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally as he was shot.

“Kamala will be the president of invasion, and I will be the president of making this country stronger, more beautiful,” he said.

2. He made promises on the economy.

Trump described further his economic plans, including his proposal to end taxes on overtime pay, which he announced the day before. He also pledged to end taxes on Social Security, receiving a loud cheer from the crowd.

When he visited Las Vegas in June, he announced his plans to end taxes on tips, which other political candidates signed onto, as well, including Kamala Harris and Nevada Democrats, though with an additional call to raise the national minimum wage.

He said he’d open up federal land for housing to help alleviate the housing crisis. And said he’d turn the U.S. into a manufacturing superpower.

Francine Lipman, a tax law expert at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, said the proposal looks good on surface, but it would have negative consequences.

Lipman said it would encourage higher income individuals to structure their income and wealth in a way to be listed as an hourly worker and receive more overtime, which could result in much less income tax. The proposal also could incentivize employers to pay their employees less or not increase their wages because they no longer get taxed on overtime, Lipman said.

“It is just not grounded in reality,” she said. A CEO could say they make $15 an hour plus $30 million in overtime, she said.

“If we eliminate overtime from being taxed, and we also let employers dictate what overtime is, then everything will be overtime so that individuals are not going to pay taxes,” Lipman said.

Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald said the policy would put money back in people’s pockets and give them an opportunity to spend it.

“What Donald Trump’s doing right now, our push right now for our plan, it helps, it puts money right back in the pockets of the working man,” McDonald said.

3. He criticizes Harris and the debate moderators.

Just days after the first and potentially only presidential debate between him and Harris, Trump took to the stage to criticize the debate moderators and Harris, who he said lied often.

He criticized the moderators for fact-checking him and said they did not fact-check Harris. He denied that he was wrong when ABC News moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump about violent crime being up.

He said Harris is “all talk and no action,” and claimed she lied about working in McDonald’s. He criticized her for continuing to bring up Project 2025, which he’s “said 100 times” that he knows nothing about it.

Trump showed video of Harris flip-flopping on some issues, including her saying during her 2019 presidential campaign that she wants to ban fracking and then in July saying she no longer supports that policy. He also showed a video montage of Harris laughing and thanking people on stage, calling her “unwell.”

“Thirty-eight times she said thank you. There’s something wrong with her,” he said.

4. He name-dropped GOP candidates on the ballot.

The former president talked about Nevada’s senate race in which Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen faces Republican Sam Brown, who he called an “incredible guy.”

“He’s given up so much,” Trump said. “Nobody’s given up like he’s given up. He wants to do this because he loves his country,” Trump said.

Trump called Rosen radical and invited Brown on stage, who gave a short speech and handed Trump a copy of his memoir, “Alive Day: Finding Hope and Purpose after Losing Everything.”

He also mentioned John Lee and Drew Johnson, who are going up against Democratic incumbents Rep. Steven Horsford and Susie Lee. Trump did not name-drop Mark Robertson, who is running against Rep. Dina Titus.

Brown, who has lagged behind Rosen in the polls, told the Review-Journal before Trump took stage that he’s on the ground every day to get his campaign going.

“I’m just working hard. I do the same thing every single day. It’s this meeting with Nevadans, it’s focusing on the issues, it’s talking about what our solutions are,” he said. “At the end of the day, the polls don’t matter, how money is raised or spent doesn’t matter. It’s who has the most votes. We’re on a trajectory to take the lead and win.”

5. Supporters’ enthusiasm is clear.

Around 6,000 people signed up to attend the rally, according to the campaign.

Rallygoers lined up to get in, wearing their patriotic and also eclectic attire, including T-shirts saying “I’m voting for the felon” and pictures of Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt off and of Trump raising his fist after his assassination attempt. A tent outside the venue had a line of people signing up to volunteer for the campaign, and vendors sold Trump and MAGA swag. Inside the center, they often chanted “USA” and “fight,” which Trump had shouted when he was shot.

Kayla Smith, 32, attended her first Trump rally on Friday.

“I really wanted to experience it, and plus Kamala told us to do so during the debate so might as well take some advice and see what the rally is all about,” the Las Vegas resident said.

Smith said she’s nervous and excited about the election and said things need to change. She said she was able to purchase two homes, refinance one and sell the other while he was president.

“I noticed things were a lot better when I had him as president,” she said.

She wants a strong economy, she supports tariffs imposed on countries. She wants a safer America and said Trump is the only president to talk about sex trafficking, which she said is one of her biggest concerns.

Samuel Farfaglio, a 31-year-old Las Vegas resident, likes Trump’s policies and is interested in Trump’s calls for tariffs. He also agrees with Trump’ policies on military spending and drilling for more oil in the country.

“I think we’re in a pretty pivotal time in this country where I think that the only thing that will stop us from a potential decline is good policy, both in our states and with foreign affairs,” Farfaglio said.

“I don’t think that he’s a perfect human. I don’t care,” Farfaglio said. “I just care that the things that he says make far more sense than almost all the other candidates.”

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.