Trump’s motorcade neared 100 mph en route to Oklahoma after helicopter, airplane ruled out

President Trump’s motorcade put the pedal to the metal Thursday as stormy weather in the South spurred the president to drive from rallies in Texas to Oklahoma rather than fly.

Trump took the motorcade from his event at the Peterbilt Motors manufacturing plant in Denton, Texas, to his second event in Durant, Okla. The locations are roughly 90 miles apart. Press traveling with the president noted that the vans reached speeds of 98 mph.

Typically, the president would’ve taken Marine One from Texas to Oklahoma, but stormy weather spurred the last-minute decision to drive.

During the ride to Oklahoma, Trump posted on social media that the “Beast,” or the car the president rides in, was going “faster than it has ever gone before.” “To the Great People of Oklahoma, stay tuned — I’ll be there soon! There was a major weather delay, and the planes and helicopters were not able to land, so we’re driving up from Texas,” he wrote on Truth Social . “They wanted me to postpone the event, and I said, ‘NO WAY, I’M GOING TO OKLAHOMA!’ ‘The Beast’ is going faster than it has ever gone before. It won’t be long. I love you all! See you in a little while.”

Trump showed up about two hours late in Durant, telling the crowd that he refused to cancel it entirely.

“I said, ‘What can I take?’” he told the crowd.

“I said, ‘How fast does the Beast travel?’ They said, ‘We could go close to a 100 miles per hour,’” he continued. “I said, ‘Get your a‑‑es in that car. We’re going to Oklahoma.”

Trump said he wanted to make sure he made it to Oklahoma, not because the candidates needed his help, but because he won the state all three times he ran for president.

“We got the most votes ever in the state history all three times,” he said. “And we won all 77 out of 77 counties.”