Embattled former president, convicted felon, and 2024 Republican party nominee, Donald Trump, said during a Wednesday evening rally in Charlotte, North Carolina that he would be in favor of replacing military generals with NASCAR team owners and drivers. Trump was introduced on stage by team owner Richard Childress (shown above), and spent a section of his 93-minute screed positing this idea, speaking directly to Mr. Childress as he said it:
“How are you doing? It’s amazing. It’s so amazing. We should send you into, I’ve always said get some of these guys. I have a lot of friends in that world. I don’t know. I think, isn’t Roger Penske, like, a great guy? The guy won 20 Indianapolis 500s. This guy (pointing to Childress) wins all the time. I mean, we appreciate talent. I said, ‘Let me use these guys to guide our military a little bit. When you can win so many races, that’s OK, you know? You guide. Same thing with coaches. You take some of the greatest football coaches, you put them at the table. ‘What do you like, coach?’ Because in it’s own way it’s not so much really different.”
Meaning no disrespect to Richard Childress or Roger Penske, but what the fuck do they know about running military operations? Childress is 78 years old and Penske is 87. At the age they are with the wealth they’ve amassed, shouldn’t they be relaxing on a beach somewhere? While they have admittedly built enviable motorsport empires, that’s hardly the same thing as having the training necessary to run, or even consult on, the world’s most powerful military.
Childress and Penske are high profile supporters of Trump’s, and he awarded Penske with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.
