President Trump last held a rally at Bojangles' Coliseum before the 2018 midterms.

And Monday’s rally was bigger in almost every way. More noise. More passion. And there was a crowd of hundreds who couldn’t get inside but watched the event on a big-screen TV in the parking lot.

About halfway through his hourlong speech, Trump noted that his rally was the night before the Democrats would be voting in North Carolina as part of Super Tuesday.

"We like to troll," Trump said. "We like to go the night before their primaries. We do a little trolling. It's called we do a little trolling."

Trump held rallies in Nevada and South Carolina the night before their contests.

The president dedicated a significant part of his speech to the coronavirus. He said he had met that day with drug companies about ways to fight it.

"We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great companies," he said. "And they’ll have vaccines relatively soon. And they’re going to have something that makes you better and that’s going to take place even sooner."

Trump has said a vaccine could be ready in three or four months, but Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it could be 12 or 18 months.

The president said his decision to restrict people entering the U.S. from China has helped slow the rate of infections in the U.S.

And he said Democrats should stop criticizing his administration over its handling of the outbreak.

Leading Democratic presidential candidates have questioned the president’s response, with some saying he should defer to public health experts.

"But the political attacks from some of the Democrats really must stop. We have to work together on this one," he said.

The most inflammatory rhetoric has come from the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who spoke on "Fox and Friends" Friday.

In interview, Trump Jr. said, “For (Democrats) to try and take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people, so they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning…”

In an interview with WFAE before the rally, Kayleigh McEnany, the Trump campaign's press secretary, defended Trump Jr.

"Don Junior is a very prized and treasured surrogate by this campaign," she said. "We love him, he’s spot on."

Polls are open in North Carolina until 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.