Cosmic coincidence or political karma? Trump and Daniels are both in NC city this week
The most curious stop on this week’s political calendar might be former President Donald Trump making a speech in downtown Asheville, blocks away from the weekly drum circle, a store that sells magic mushrooms gummies and a restaurant that serves $14 cauliflower for dinner.
Not exactly Trump Country.
But the campaign rally takes on even more bizarre quality that considering Stormy Daniels — porn actress, comedian and the president’s persistent legal foil — will perform there just two days later.
This might be their closest brush since a Manhattan courtroom in May.
‘Why Asheville?”
Trump appears Wednesday at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, a free event aimed at criticizing the economic hardship he blames on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris plans her own North Carolina speech in Raleigh on Friday.
Trump’s choice of venue, in what may be North Carolina’s bluest ZIP Code, has already drawn a puzzled response statewide.
“I think a lot of people are scratching their heads, they’re saying, well, Asheville is liberal. Trump is not. Why Asheville?” asked Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper in the Asheville Citizen Times.
“And part of it may just be simple logistics. If you want to hit Western North Carolina, you need a venue that holds thousands of people, and after the assassination attempt, you prefer to be indoors, then you pretty much have one option and one option only, and its Harrah’s Cherokee in the center of the city of Asheville.”
Daniels, meanwhile, sold out her “One Night Stand” show in New Orleans in June, Newsweek reported, after a jury in New York convicted Trump on 34 felony counts, largely on her testimony about their affair and hush-money payments.
Her Friday show at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville has tickets selling between $40 and $95 and offers “excitement, laughter and maybe even a few surprises.”
But here’s a surprise nobody would expect: an Asheville resident showing up both nights.
