Ahead of his criminal hush money trial resuming in New York, Donald Trump was greeted with cheers and applause on Sunday afternoon as the former president arrived at the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
The former president was indicted in March 2023 by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 34 charges of allegedly falsifying business records relating to hush money payments that were made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. The former president, who also faces three other criminal indictments, has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.
Trump’s criminal hush money trial in Manhattan resumes on Monday at 9:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, videos posted to X, formerly Twitter, show fans at the race’s paddock cheering the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee as he waved and pumped his fist at the crowd in return.
Spotted in the paddock for the Miami Formula 1 race: Donald Trump.
(I’m told his planned high-dollar fundraiser isn’t happening in the complex, though.) pic.twitter.com/vAvqVtfsxa
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) May 5, 2024
One video posted to X showed Florida law enforcement greeting Trump’s motorcade as he arrived at Miami International Autodrome, a temporary grand prix circuit built around Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Before the race, Trump was shown visiting the McLaren racing team’s garage and chatting with the team’s CEO Zak Brown. Later Sunday, McLaren’s Lando Norris, whose garage Trump visited, collected his first-ever F1 win in the Miami Grand Prix.
Another video posted to X shows Trump being met with chants of “USA” in the garage area.
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll produced by Langer Research Associates and conducted between April 25 to 30 that was published on Sunday, 80 percent of Trump’s supporters said they will continue to stand by him if he was convicted of a felony in the hush money case. In addition, 20 percent of his base would either reconsider their support (16 percent) or withdraw their support of Trump (4 percent).
The sample size of the subgroup of Trump supporters was 937 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4. The national sample size of the poll was 2,260 adults and the margin of error for the full sample was 2 percentage points.
Along with Brown, Trump was joined by Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and CEO of Liberty Media Greg Maffei. This ensemble underscored the significance of his visit, which was more than just a casual walkthrough.
In response to widespread discussion and scrutiny, the British racing team released a detailed statement explaining their stance, as quoted by The Race.
“McLaren is a non-political organisation however we recognise and respect the office of President of the United States so when the request was made to visit our garage on race day we accepted alongside the president of the FIA and the CEO’s of Liberty Media and Formula 1. We were honoured that McLaren Racing was chosen as the representative of F1 which gave us the opportunity to showcase the world class engineering that we bring to motorsport,” the statement read.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email Sunday afternoon. This story will be updated with any provided comments.
Late last month, Miami Grand Prix organizers banned a planned fundraising event for Trump’s presidential campaign within their paddock suite facilities. The event, orchestrated by real estate mogul Steven Witkoff, was stopped following a Cease and Desist directive, citing a breach in suite usage terms.
The letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post, read:
“It has come to our attention that you may be using your Paddock Club Rooftop Suite for a political purpose, namely raising money for a federal election at $250,000 per ticket, which clearly violates the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement. If this is true, we regret to inform you that your suite license will be revoked, you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full.”
When questioned by the newspaper about the fundraiser, Witkoff, known for his support of Trump, dismissed the sourcing claims as “fake,” though without further elaboration.
Over the weekend, Trump attended a private, closed-door Republican National Committee (RNC) spring finance retreat for donors on Saturday in Palm Beach, Florida.
Most of this weekend’s donor retreat was held at the Four Seasons hotel in Palm Beach while Trump hosted a fundraising lunch at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday. The event was expected to attract more than 400 donors and featured several of Trump’s rumored vice-presidential picks.
Update: 5/5/2024, 6:21 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.