Former President Trump on Sunday flew over the Coca-Cola 600 in North Carolina in his private plane, dubbed “Trump Force One,” before attending the NASCAR race.
Trump Force One flew over the Charlotte Motor Speedway around 4:30 p.m. Sunday and was met with scores of cheering from the audience.
“Passing over the Charlotte Motor Speedway now – Very exciting! DJT,” the former president wrote on Truth Social Sunday.
The Coca-Cola 600 is a NASCAR Cup Series race that is the longest and only one in the series that goes from day-to-night in Concord, North Carolina. The race was slated to kick off at 6:00 p.m. EST.
Ahead of the Sunday night kickoff, Trump met with Gold Star families at the race and watched the C-17 flyover from the track, according to his deputy director of communications, Margo Martin.
Videos posted by Martin showed attendees shouting “USA” and “You’re our man Trump” as the former president made his way to the “Pit Road” viewing box at the speedway.
Trump’s visit marks the first time a sitting or former president has attended a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, per multiple media reports. In 2020, Trump attended the 62nd Daytona 500 and served as grand marshal for the race. He was the second president in history to hold the title after President George W. Bush in 2004.
Democrats seized his visit as a chance to blast Trump and his policy positions.
The Charlottee Observer in North Carolina reported last week two billboards were hung up in the city that read, “Beware: Trump’s Extreme MAGA,” and pledge not to allow the former president to “ban abortions nationwide, raise costs on working families or rip away our health care.”
The billboards were reportedly paid for by the Democratic National Convention (DNC), per the Charlotte Observer. The Hill reached out to the DNC for comment.
Trump, the GOP party’s presumptive presidential nominee, currently holds a razor-thin lead of 1 percent over President Biden, the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee.
The former president’s time on the campaign trail has been limited in recent weeks due to his ongoing hush money case in New York, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying records in connection with reimbursement payments made to his ex-fixer Michael Cohen ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump’s defense last Tuesday rested their case without calling the former president to the stand, and the jurors were dismissed until this coming Tuesday, when closing statements are slated to begin. Jury deliberations will follow shortly afterward.
Updated at 7:57 pm.