Raleigh – A new report from NBC News spotlights the Trump campaign’s chaotic call to uproot months of convention planning and investments in Charlotte. According to the story, Trump’s decision to pull the RNC from Charlotte wasted time, money and resources, leaving GOP leaders “worried about November,” individuals and businesses that contributed “highly, highly frustrated” and small business owners financially devastated.

“Just like his management of the federal response to the pandemic, Donald Trump’s handling of the RNC has been marked by chaos, confusion and self interest,” said NCDP Communications Director Austin Cook. “His broken promises to the Charlotte community have left small business owners high and dry and left local officials to pick up the pieces. North Carolinians deserved better than the ego-driven approach Trump has taken when it comes to his convention.”

HIGHLIGHTS

NBC News: In N.C., economic fallout for business and political repercussions for Trump
By Amanda Golden and Monica Alba

• [In] Charlotte, the ripple effects continue. The call, at the urging of the president, to uproot rigorous planning and financial investments in the city has left businesses in a crunch and spurred concern among party leaders in a state that is crucial for Trump’s re-election.
• And six-in-ten North Carolinians in the poll said they agreed with the statement that “the state was right to prioritize its health protocols for large gatherings over the objections of the president.”
• The political bickering over the convention has left N.C. GOP leaders worried about November, with Biden hoping to reclaim a state Democrats last won when he was on the ticket in 2008 but lost in 2012. “If Joe Biden wins North Carolina, Trump gets his ass kicked all across the country,” one state Republican official told NBC News.
• With the millions of dollars put up by the host committee to drive the running of the convention in Charlotte, the individuals and businesses that contributed are now “highly, highly frustrated,” Tariq Bokhari, a Republican Charlotte City Council member, told NBC News.
• “It was a tremendous hit, especially in the time it came in,” Patel said. “We were in the middle of this crisis and this convention was a silver lining.”
• “It was the light at the end of the tunnel for them,” Anthony Kearey told NBC News of the convention’s impact, who owns a few bars and restaurants in Charlotte. “A lot of places announced they would be closing for good after the announcement that the RNC was moving.”
• Bob Durkin, who manages bars and restaurants with the Bar Management Group in Charlotte, echoed the concerns. “Frankly, we don’t know if it will be able to or not, so it was devastating financially, it was devastating the time we had put in, the fact that COVID was the reason it moved but that could spell disaster for some of our businesses,” he said.
• “We’re sort of in limbo right now waiting for the next step,” Durkin said of his own businesses, “but I can guarantee that some of them will not open, we’re not sure which ones, but it will have been the last straw and it’ll definitely cause some of our businesses to be out of business for good.”
• “That’s kind of just putting salt in the wound,” Durkin said of the shift to Jacksonville, initially to do a socially-distanced convention that is now also cancelled for in-person. “It’s a shame … the reality is nobody is going to be able to benefit.”