NASCAR will no longer hold the sport's Xfinity and Camping World Truck series banquets at the Trump National Doral Miami "after Donald Trump's comments about Mexican immigrants," according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. The new location for the banquets "has not been determined." NASCAR VP/Integrated Marketing Communications David Higdon said that NASCAR "had no official stance on Trump's comments." But Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis, who is a Lebanese immigrant to the U.S., called them "blatantly bigoted and racist." Lemonis "made his comments in a June 30 letter addressed to NASCAR Chair & CEO Brian France" (USATODAY.com, 7/3). Higdon: "We looked at obviously everything that we saw coming down and what we heard from our sponsors and our partners and what we feel we should be doing, and that is what led us to the decision." ESPN.com's Bob Pockrass noted in Camping World, "one of the biggest NASCAR sponsors lobbied to have the event moved." NBC Sports Network "is scheduled to air this year's banquet." Higdon said that the decision to move the banquet "was not requested by NBC, which recently dropped Trump's beauty pageants from its network" (ESPN.com, 7/3).
TRUMP CARD: In California, Nick Green reported that the L.A. Galaxy “pulled the plug on a planned charity golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club in reaction” to Trump’s remarks. The team said that it would "find another venue for the Galaxy Foundation’s third annual charity golf tournament, which had been scheduled for Oct. 9" at Trump National in Rancho Palos Verdes (Torrance DAILY BREEZE, 7/3). In L.A., Tom Hoffarth wrote “it might seem like it’s a slam dunk” for the PGA of America to “yank” its Grand Slam of Golf scheduled for October at the Trump National Golf Club in L.A. Along “with it goes the PGA Junior League Golf Championships set as the lead-in event." Hoffarth: “And then put Trump on notice that they’re about to rethink the 2022 PGA Championship that’s scheduled to be played at his self-named New Jersey course” (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 7/3). ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski said of the golf world’s response to Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about Mexicans, "There was no outrage, no threats, no severing of business ties, just 76 words of mush. Those four golf organizations had a chance to say something important about their business partner, Trump, and they whiffed” (“Sports Reporters,” ESPN2, 7/5).
