Former President Trump lashed out at the teleprompter operators over technical issues he said he was having during his Sunday rally in Las Vegas.
“I got no teleprompters, and I haven’t from the beginning,” Trump told a crowd of supporters gathered in the scorching heat to show support.
“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. I’m trying to look at,” he said, cutting himself off. “So we’re all in this together, everybody. Just a mess.”
Trump expressed his frustration at the teleprompter issues multiple times in the speech.
At one point, Trump suggested he would not pay for the teleprompter services because he was not satisfied with the work.
“He just came up: ‘Are the teleprompters not working, sir? ‘Not even a little bit.’’” Trump said, apparently recounting a brief exchange he had with a member of the crew.
“Great job! And then I don’t pay the company that does it, right?” Trump said. “And then I end up with a story, ‘Trump doesn’t pay.’ I don’t pay contractors that do a sh**** job. And that’s a sh**** job. That’s a sh**** job. You can’t read a word.”
“Then they’ll say, ‘Oh, isn’t it terrible? Trump takes advantage of his—,’” Trump added, cutting himself off. “No… when I have a good contractor, a subcontractor, nobody gets paid faster. But when I have contractors that do this kind of work? You can have them.”
Trump is referring to past reporting that revealed allegations by hundreds of workers and contractors that they were not paid in full by the former president.