At least 78 attendees of former president Donald Trump’s rallies have been hospitalized for heat-related illnesses in the past three months, according to news reports and local fire officials interviewed by The Washington Post.
The incidents underscore how climate change, which is making heat waves longer and more extreme, is complicating plans for outdoor events of all kinds. Such rallies have become a hallmark of campaigning, especially in swing states in the sweltering Sun Belt and the unseasonably warm Midwest.
Both presidential campaigns have provided water and coordinated with medics to help supporters cool off. But the two candidates have staked out vastly different positions on climate policy and heat regulations for employers.
Harris has called climate change an “existential threat,” and under the Biden administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed the first federal rule requiring employers to protect workers from heat-related illnesses. Trump, in contrast, has called global warming a “hoax” and would almost certainly block that rule from becoming final if he returned to the White House.
Outside a Trump rally in Glendale, Ariz., on Friday, 100 people were evaluated for heat-related illnesses and 26 were taken to a nearby hospital for further treatment, Glendale Fire Department spokesman Kyle Borg said in an email. People waited in a long line that stretched for blocks outside the Desert Diamond Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, where temperatures reached 104 degrees that afternoon.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said rally organizers typically take several steps to keep attendees cool.
“When planning campaign events, it is our team’s utmost priority to protect attendees,” Leavitt said in an email. “In cases of extreme heat, our team has provided cooling tents, a sufficient supply of water, and coordination with EMS personnel for cases of emergency.”
Leavitt added that the campaign rented space in a nearby hotel for attendees to wait in the air conditioning before the Glendale rally began. She did not respond to a question about whether the campaign acknowledged the link between climate change and extreme heat.
Global warming — caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels — made the extreme heat in the Phoenix area last week three times more likely, according to research by the nonprofit Climate Central. By 2050, the area is expected to experience 102 days per year with heat that is highly dangerous to human health.
Last week in Phoenix “was made hotter by that boost of climate change, that climate fingerprint,” said Shel Winkley, the weather and climate engagement specialist at Climate Central. “And in this warming world, heat is only going to continue to cause more issues for outdoor events, especially in the summer season.”
Harris has had fewer instances of heat exhaustion at her rallies — in part because she has only been campaigning since late July, when Biden ended his own reelection bid. In comparison, Trump announced his 2024 campaign in November 2022.
During Harris’s rally at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Aug. 9, volunteers for the campaign handed out fans, water bottles and Gatorade to combat the 108-degree heat during one of the area’s hottest weeks of the year, the Arizona Republic reported. Near the entrance, free Mexican ice pops were available, according to the newspaper.
It is unclear how many heat-related incidents occurred during that rally. Borg said he did not know because the Glendale Fire Department does not specifically track heat-related calls; spokespeople for the Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Two of the battleground states in the 2024 election — Arizona and Nevada — are home to two of the country’s hottest cities, Phoenix and Las Vegas. The average annual temperature in Las Vegas increased by 5.7 degrees from 1970 to 2023, a trend driven by both climate change and the urban heat island effect, in which heat reflects off hard surfaces. June was the hottest month on record in Las Vegas, with 28 days reaching 100 degrees or higher.
At a Trump rally on June 9 in Las Vegas, where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees, 24 people were treated on-site and six others were sent to a hospital, said Billy Samuels, deputy fire chief at the Clark County Fire Department. Ninety-seven people used the department’s cooling tents that day, he said.
The Trump campaign hired extra medics for the Las Vegas event and allowed supporters to carry umbrellas. At one point, Trump joked that he didn’t want anyone dying because then they couldn’t vote for him.
“I don’t want anybody going on me,” he told the crowd. “We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote.”
Earlier in the speech, Trump said campaign officials would help any supporters who were feeling tired. He quipped that “everybody,” including the Secret Service, was worried about the safety of the crowds and not about him.
“They never mentioned me. I’m up here sweating like a dog,” he said. “This is hard work.”
During an Aug. 7 rally in Eau Claire, Wis., Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Harris’s vice-presidential pick, took a different tack. When an attendee appeared to be suffering from heat stroke, Walz paused his speech to ask the crowd for help.
“Can we get somebody to help? Somebody’s hot,” Walz said. “You okay? Drink some water, folks. It is hot out.”
Walz continued his speech after ensuring the attendee received assistance. “Take care of one another,” he said.
In the hours leading up to the event in Eau Claire, where the high was 78 degrees, medics walked around the rally area to check on attendees, while event organizers offered water to the crowd. At one point, there was a line of dozens trying to get water.
Heat also complicated the logistics of Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., where the former president was rushed offstage after a shooting that authorities called an assassination attempt. At least 250 attendees received on-site treatment for heat-related illnesses, including ice packs and IV drips of cool fluids, and around 10 were hospitalized, said Nathan Bacher, the co-owner of Butler Ambulance Service.
“Our crews were there all day, so when the actual [shooting] happened, they had already dealt with a lot,” Bacher said.
Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather. It killed at least 2,325 Americans last year — more than any other year in nearly a quarter-century of records, according to research published Monday in JAMA.
The OSHA proposal, if finalized, would require employers to provide drinking water and break areas for workers when the heat index — a combined metric of heat and humidity — reaches 80 degrees. More protections would kick in when the heat index hits 90 degrees, including mandatory 15-minute breaks every two hours.
Employers in agriculture, tourism and other sectors have argued that the proposal is overly burdensome and that they might challenge it in court. Trump, who has sought to minimize federal oversight of private industries, would probably block the rule’s implementation if he were to win a second term.
“If President Trump’s new secretary of labor reviews the rulemaking and concludes that absent the Biden-Harris administration’s perspective on climate policy, this rule is no longer an appropriate priority, then I think you would expect them to take a different course,” said Jonathan Berry, managing partner at the law firm Boyden Gray and the former head of the Labor Department’s policy office under Trump.
In the coming days, the Trump and Harris campaigns are both keeping busy schedules, with some of these events in hot places.
Trump plans to hold a town hall on Thursday in La Crosse, Wis., where the high is forecast to be 86 degrees, followed by a rally on Friday in Johnstown, Pa., where the high is forecast to be 82 degrees. Harris and Walz will hold a rally on Thursday in Savannah, which could get as hot as 91 degrees.
Sabrina Rodriguez contributed to this report.
