Charlottesville– On Wednesday night, just a day after Trump spent 24 hours threatening genocide in Iran, reports started appearing in the local press that the FAA would be closing the airspace around Charlottesville and limiting flights to aircraft “DIRECTLY SUPPORTING THE UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE (USSS) AND THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES”. Yesterday, residents learned that Trump would be visiting the Charlottesville area for the first time since he famously refused to condemn the violence at the white nationalist Unite the Right rally, claiming there were “very fine people on both sides.” His reason for coming in the midst of an international crisis caused by his war-of-choice in Iran? A fundraiser at the Trump Winery, owned nominally by the president’s son Eric Trump.
“Charlottesville has not forgotten what happened in August 2017, and we have demonstrated our opposition to Trump and his agenda at the ballot box over and over,” said Ashleigh Crocker, Interim Executive Director at Progress Virginia. “Donald Trump is not welcome here, and the fact that he’s chosen to return not for any public purpose, but to fundraise at a winery that exploits foreign workers at below-minimum wage while his own tariffs gut the American wine industry, tells you everything you need to know about his priorities. Our community is watching, and we will make our voices heard.”
Trump has not spent time in Charlottesville since before Unite the Right, where dozens of community members were seriously injured, and Heather Heyer was killed by a white nationalist counterprotester. In the 2024 election, Charlottesville City voted +69 for Kamala Harris: in all of Virginia, only Petersburg had a higher Harris vote (+73). Albemarle County, where the winery is located, went +34 for Harris. Protests are planned along Trump’s route from the airport to the vineyard on Friday.
PROTEST INFORMATION
When: 4:30 PM
Where: Three locations along Trump’s anticipated route from CHO to Trump Winery:
• Corner of Proffit/Airport Road and 29 at the old Walgreens
• Stonefield Shops on 29
• Corner of Rt 20 and Rt 53 near Saunders Monticello trail parking area.
BACKGROUND: Related News About The Trump Winery
- Trump Tariffs Have Made This the Worst Time for American Wine in Literally Decades│Yahoo! Finance│Jim Vorel (3/16/26)
- Inside Trump’s winery, where a tariff battle is bubbling up │The Times of London│Charlotte McDonald-Gibson (3/19/25)
- Trump Vineyard Seeks Foreign Workers At Lower Wages After Trump Administration Policy Shift │Forbes│Zach Everson (1/12/26)
- Spill the Wine: How Trump is Using His Vineyards to Scam America│Paste Magazine│Roger Sollenberger (6/20/17) [On the contested ownership of the Trump Vineyard and the president’s personal enrichment]