Trump Attends NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Donald Trump becomes the first president to attend the event in North Carolina.

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on during the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., on May 26, 2024. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump attended the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 racing event at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina on Sunday.

On his way to the event, President Trump’s private plane “Trump Force One” flew over the Charlotte Motor Speedway. “Passing over the Charlotte Motor Speedway now—Very exciting!” the former president said in a May 27 Truth Social post.

Podcast host Brenden Dilley pointed out that “the buzz in Charlotte, North Carolina, is incredible today. Everyone is talking about how President Trump is the first president to visit the Coca-Cola 600. Everywhere we’ve gone, people have brought it up and wanted to discuss it.”

After arriving at the event, President Trump met with members of Gold Star families. The former president watched a Boeing C-17 military transport aircraft fly over the race track, saluting as the plane flew by. A social media video showed the former president striking up a conversation with former race car driver Richard Petty at the event.

President Trump’s Coca-Cola 600 visit came after his New York trial’s testimony came to an end last week. The prosecution rested its case on Monday, followed by the defense on Tuesday. The jurors were dismissed until May 28, giving the former president some time to boost his campaign activities.

On May 28, the closing statements on the New York case will begin, which will be followed by jury deliberations. President Trump is pleading not guilty to 34 counts of falsification of business records in the case.

Prosecutors claimed that payments made to adult entertainment performer Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were falsified, amounting to election interference during the 2016 presidential race. However, President Trump’s lawyers argued that there was nothing wrong with the payments made under NDAs and that no illegal activity occurred.

In court, the prosecution argued that an election law is violated when people conspire to get someone elected to office by “unlawful means.” Proof of intent need not be given in matters related to “unlawful” actions, they claimed.

To prove their case, prosecutors have to show that President Trump had an intent to defraud when causing the creation of the business records.

President Trump slammed the New York trial in a May 27 Truth Social post. “In addition to the fact that I did nothing wrong, NDAs are totally legal and commonly used, and that virtually every legal Scholar and Expert says, in written form, that this is a case which has NO MERIT and should not have been brought,” he wrote.

Tight Presidential Race

President Trump’s visit to the racing event comes as there is roughly six months left until the November presidential elections. Polls show mixed results, with candidates holding only a marginal lead over their rivals.

A May 20 update from Morning Consult showed President Trump leading the poll by one percentage point over President Biden. Among Independents, both candidates are tied, with each netting the support of 35 percent of voters.

“The race remains closer than before Super Tuesday, when Trump consistently led. Trump performs slightly better with Republicans and his own 2020 backers than Biden does with Democrats and his 2020 supporters.”

A RealClear Polling average of multiple polls shows President Trump having a marginal 1.1 percentage point lead. An I&I/TIPP poll showed President Biden having a narrow two percentage point lead over the GOP candidate.

“Adding the others into the mix alters the results somewhat. Biden takes 39 percent of the vote, while Trump takes 38 percent of the vote.”

President Trump shows an emphatic lead in key battleground states. According to RealClear Polling, the Republican is leading in seven such states: Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Nevada.

The two candidates have been intensely focusing on securing votes from the African American community which could prove key to the election. Though black voters still largely side with the Democratic Party, there has been an erosion in their support base, which Republicans calculate they could take advantage of in November.

President Trump recently visited the South Bronx in New York, a region President Biden won in 2020. In his speech, the former president focused on the issues of the economy and immigration that have affected the African American community.

“The biggest epiphany for Black folks was when they saw that we were giving illegal immigrants in New York credit cards, they stayed in luxury hotels and gave them money to eat,” Robin Barnes from Oakland County told The Epoch Times.

“And you have had African American citizens who have been homeless ... for all this time? What a slap in the face.”

Meanwhile, President Biden is focusing on convincing black voters that his administration has been beneficial to the community.

He asked the Democratic National Committee to hold the first presidential primary this year in South Carolina, a state with 27 percent black residents, disrupting a five-decade tradition of beginning the campaign in New Hampshire which is predominantly white.

In an interview with the Epoch Times, Ron Klink, a senior policy adviser and former Democrat congressman from Pennsylvania, claimed that the Biden administration has given massive leadership opportunities for minority groups, surpassing earlier administrations.

“I think that should resonate ... If it doesn’t, then they haven’t done a good job of communicating,” he said.