Donald Trump Jr. attends groundbreaking for Catawba Indians’ $700 million casino in NC
Friday’s groundbreaking for the Catawba Indians’ $700 million North Carolina casino drew an unexpected guest few people noticed until Chief Brian Harris made an announcement.
Donald Trump Jr. quietly sat under a tent with hundreds of other guests for the 10 a.m. ceremony in Kings Mountain. He wasn’t listed on the program for the event and didn’t speak at the gathering.
Most people realized he was there only when Harris pointed him out in the crowd, drawing applause from many of those gathered. Harris had just finished mentioning former president Donald Trump as having supported the tribe’s yearslong effort to establish the casino.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump was unable to attend the ceremony, Harris said, before adding that Trump Jr. was there representing his father. Dozens of people lined up to shake hands and take photos with Trump Jr. after the ceremony ended.
The Catawba Nation, based in Rock Hill, S.C., has operated a single-level, temporary casino at the site since 2021, off Interstate 85 about 35 miles west of Charlotte. Tribal officials said they plan to open the first phase of their permanent, 2-million-square-foot Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort in early 2026.
Asked by The Charlotte Observer why he attended, Trump Jr. said: “Friendly with a lot of the people involved. Aaron Thomas has been a buddy of mine. He’s the builder of it. I did a lot of stuff with the Lumbees starting in 2016, so just supporting my friends.”
Thomas’ construction company, Metcon Inc., is a partner in the project.
After the ceremony, Harris told the Observer that former president Trump was instrumental in making the casino possible.
”Our dreams, our ambitions started years ago, 20 years ago to get this deal through and make this happen,” Harris said. “We went through a Republican administration, and we went through a Democratic administration. However, it was the Republican administration of Donald Trump and the people he put in the Department of the Interior and other agencies, they never forgot about the Catawba people. They kept things pushing, helped align legislation as needed. And for that, I want to thank him, and I did thank him.
“And today, his son Donald Trump Jr. showed up to accept the gratitude of the Catawba Nation people. We have a good relationship,” Harris said of Trump Jr. “I’ve seen him at various functions and we just bonded. I support him and he supports me. He had to move some things around with his children, but he did come.”
Trump Jr. is an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, the business enterprise owned by the former president in which his son Eric Trump is also an executive. Trump Jr. oversees real estate, retail, commercial, hotel and golf interests, according to his bio on the organization’s website.
Earlier this week, Trump Jr. and his fiancée , Kimberly Guilfoyle, were in Alabama to raise over $1 million for the presidential campaign of his father, the presumptive GOP nominee this year, Al.com reported.
Last year, Trump Jr. testified in his father’s fraud trial in New York, in which the former president was ordered to pay $355 million after a judge found the former president lied about his wealth on financial statements he used to secure loans.
This story was originally published June 7, 2024 at 12:07 PM.