US president has identified exactly where he can boost himself the most
Named the race’s grand marshal, the president buzzed the speedway from aboard Air Force One, dangling the world’s most advanced airliner above 150,000 Nascar fans the way a parent humours an infant with a spoonful of baby food. Later, from the backseat of the presidential limousine, AKA The Beast, he paced the 41-car field around the oval track before the race.
Dave Hannigan: Nothing sums up the pomposity of the New York Yankees better than their weird beard announcement The essence of fandom lies in the inevitable struggles in the path to glory. But Trump doesn’t do struggle or even concede defeat; that’s for the plebes, Jets and Mets junkies. He doesn’t indulge in true sports fandom. He engages, in the cold, tech bro-y sense of the word – for the branding opportunity. He leaves the Super Bowl before the end of the game and bails on the Daytona 500 after 11 laps – 189 short of the full distance. His only struggle is with the concept of fair-weather fandom.
The more he makes sports his bully pulpit, the more the actual protagonists in the arena feel compelled to kiss the ring. Ten months ago McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown was the one falling over himself while guiding then-candidate Trump on a VIP tour of the Miami Grand Prix. Earlier this month PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan implored Trump to moderate the merger negotiations between his circuit and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf, which would enrich the family business.
At the last Daytona 500 I covered in 2017, weeks after Trump was sworn in for his first term, Trump-Pence campaign signs, bumper stickers and flags proliferated in the Daytona infield. Three years later he turned up for his first stint as race grand marshal. That’s a lot of attention by proximity for a sports league that’s fallen in popularity from its Bush-era peak. But you wonder if everyone inside Nascar corporate is totally comfortable with it.
But playing ball with Trump comes at a cost, especially now that he’s the president again – even if the leagues themselves don’t pick up the tab. The Super Bowl trip to New Orleans is estimated to have set taxpayers back at least $1m. His Daytona 500 drop-in could cost 10 times as much. Some X users, doing the quick math on Air Force One’s hourly operation rate, reckon that $25,000 alone was burned on jet fuel when Air Force One buzzed the speedway.
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