As votes have yet to be tabulated, former President Donald Trump already declared he had a sizable lead in Nevada and claimed he was ahead in states “never typically in play” including New Hampshire at a campaign stop in Southern Nevada Thursday night.
Trump spoke at the UNLV Thomas & Mack Center a day after his running mate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, also campaigned in the state.
Numerous polls indicate the difference in support between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is well within the margin of error – the race is tied – in Nevada and other every other battleground state.
But in Las Vegas Thursday, Trump said “we are leading by a lot in Nevada,” in addition to all the other battleground states.
He also claimed that “other states, big states are all in play” and pledged to win solidly blue Colorado after the state sought to disqualify him from the primary ballot. The United States Supreme Court reversed the decision.
Polling in Colorado over roughly the last month has shown Harris leading Trump by between 10 and 17 percentage points.
Trump has previously disparaged early voting and made false claims about mail-in ballots leading to voter fraud. But on Thursday, he encouraged the crowd to vote early to ensure they not only win, but with a significant turnout.
“If we’re leading by a lot, they won’t think about cheating as much,” Trump said, leaning into baseless allegations of election fraud. “We have to make these elections honorable and honest and we’re going to do it.”
Trump, who won the presidency in 2016 even as he lost the popular vote, also falsely claimed he received more support that cycle and earned “millions and millions of votes” that weren’t counted.
No evidence of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election has ever been discovered despite countless investigations and dozens of court cases.
Trump peddles anti-immigrant rhetoric at Las Vegas rally
Much of Thursday’s speech reiterated the same proposals Trump has talked about over the last few months, including eliminating taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security. The Trump campaign has offered few details about the scope of those proposals, their implementation, or how they would be paid for, other than to suggest massive tariffs he plans to impose on foreign imports will provide the federal government with huge windfalls.
Multiple independent analysts and economists have warned Trump’s proposed tariffs would reignite inflation and prompt prices to surge.
Trump Thursday also briefly discussed plans to open up housing on federal land as a way to develop more housing amid a growing affordability housing crisis. Gov. Joe Lombardo has advocated for the federal government to open more land.
“Your governor is doing a great job,” Trump said. “We thank him very much. Joe Lombardo, doing a very good job.”
Lombardo was not at the rally, and has not appeared at any Trump campaign events this year.
Trump also told supporters to vote for Sam Brown, an Army veteran running against Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen.
“That man is a hero and he has given up so much,” he said, pointing Brown out in the audience.
Trump then invited not Brown, but Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran against Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, to the stage. Ramaswamy called 2024 “our 1776” and compared Trump to George Washington in an earlier speech at the event.
The largest chunk of his nearly 90-minute long speech repeated much of the same anti-immigrant rhetoric Trump offered at prior campaign visits to Nevada this year, including his most recent Las Vegas rally in September. Thursday, Trump characterized the United States as “an occupied territory” due to undocumented immigrants, and reiterated one of his chief campaign promises — mass deportations.
“Immediately upon taking the oath of office I will launch the largest deportation program in American history,” he said. “I will rescue every town that has been invaded and conquered … We have a lot of towns that have not been infected but they are petrified they will be. We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty animals in jail.”
Trump claimed 29,000 people attended Thursday’s event at the Thomas & Mack Center, with another 29,000 people outside. However, Turning Point Action, the group organizing the event, said the crowd was 12,500. During his remarks, Trump said his campaign event at a closed McDonalds earlier this week, where Trump put on an apron and pretended to work the drive-thru for about 20 minutes to serve a few pre-screened people, also had 29,000 people outside.
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