Donald Trump complains about teleprompters during Las Vegas rally

Former President Donald Trump complained about teleprompters not working during a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Sunday.

As Trump and his supporters stood outside in the desert heat, with temperatures reaching above 100 degrees, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee complained about the defectiveness of the teleprompters from which he reads his speeches from.

“Just in case you were wondering, I got no teleprompters and I haven’t from the beginning,” the former president said. “You know I pay all this money to teleprompter people, and I’d say 20 percent of the time they don’t work, they don’t work. The thing’s waving around. They can’t tie it a little bit tighter?”

President Joe Biden‘s campaign shared a clip of Trump’s complaint on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: “Trump complains about having to pay workers because his teleprompter doesn’t work.”

Trump then said he would get bad press if he doesn’t pay the teleprompter people. “And then I don’t pay the company who does it, right? And then I end up with a story, ‘Trump doesn’t pay.’ I don’t pay contractors that do a s***** job and that’s a s***** job,” he said.

Responding to a clip of Trump’s comments, Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic sarcastically wrote on X: “Friend of the working man.”

The former president also made multiple jokes about how Biden, his political rival, can’t read teleprompters.

“Could you imagine if the teleprompters went off?” Trump said, and then proceeded to imitate Biden: “Uhhhh, uhhhh.” The former president added: “He wouldn’t even say anything because he’s incapable.”

Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, echoed Trump’s remarks in an emailed statement to Newsweek on Sunday: “President Trump just gave an amazing speech for over an hour without a teleprompter, something Crooked Joe Biden can only dream of doing because he is too weak, frail, and incompetent.”

Biden has struggled with teleprompters before. In April, he accidentally read a teleprompter instruction, the word “pause,” aloud during a speech at a trade union event in Washington, D.C.

Newsweek has reached out to Biden’s campaign via email for comment.

American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic political action committee (PAC), wrote on X: “Trump, who says he doesn’t need a teleprompter, keeps mentioning how pissed off he is about his broken teleprompters.”

Meanwhile, hours before Trump went on stage on Sunday, there was a medical event. At around 8:45 a.m. PST, a Secret Service agent ran toward the security line yelling, “Medic,” the Reno Gazette Journal, which was covering the event live, reported. It was 86 degrees out when the incident occurred.

Trump’s campaign also took several precautions to combat the desert heat: thousands of bottles of water for attendees, tents and misting fans around the park and at least one tent with air conditioning. The campaign also said it would allow attendees to carry small umbrellas. There was also medical staff on park grounds.