Washington DC just hosted its first racing event. City officials didn’t lobby for it. DC residents didn’t ask for it. The Freedom 250 Grand Prix was organized in conjunction with Donald Trump’s White House, and there was nothing DC could do to stop it.
It wasn’t an America 250- or Freedom 250-sponsored event, according to the White House and Freedom 250. It just happened to share a name with Donald Trump’s shadowy LLC that’s siphoned a lot of money from America 250, the bipartisan group created by Congress to celebrate the US’s 250th anniversary. The White House won’t say how much the race costs, or if taxpayers have cover any part of the bill.
Officially, the race was the idea of IndyCar series owner Roger Penske, a fabulously wealthy GOP donor and Trump supporter the president gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019. The Penske Corporation says it paid for ”the vast majority” of the race, while DC will cover some repaving operations, the AP reports.
Apparently, Penske (the man, not the company) wanted a race in DC for years. Originally, the racetrack was to loop around Congress and the Supreme Court, something organizers thought would be a great scene. Unfortunately, Congress has a no advertising rule, and there weren’t enough congressmen willing to sign off. So organizers bitched to reality TV star and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to help find an alternate route. Trump quickly approved the new route by fiat, and money began flowing.
The only thing we know that taxpayers definitely have to cover is the massive security apparatus that had to be set up. Most of that comes from federal funds set aside for large events — like a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House, or a month-long fair, for example — but federal and city officials aren’t saying how much is left. Usually, it’s around $50 million, but it was increased to $90 million this year as part of the US’s semiquincentennial.
Bud Denker, president of Penske Corporation and chairman of the race, told DC’s NBC affiliate that Penske “received nothing, and [was] never offered anything from the Freedom 250 Committee, ever. [If] we take federal money, it becomes a big story.” Denker did say the Detroit IndyCar race costs between $21 and $22 million, and that the DC race “far exceeds that.”
The race had military flyovers from the Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines, including various jets, helicopters, and B-2, B-1 and B-52 bombers. Trump’s prized possession, his personal Air Force One 747-800 Qatari bribe plane (which runs the call letters “FRDMM01” when he’s not aboard), flew over the track just as he finished his own victory lap in The Beast, the US president’s armored limo.
As the jets roared past, I wasn’t thinking about the sound of “freedom,” loving or hating jet noise, I wondered who was paying for the jet fuel after Trump dragged the US into yet another war in the Middle East.
In March, there were reports of how F1’s new new hybrid engines, aerodynamics and rules left drivers righteously pissed. Drivers complained that operational regulations make an already complicated and difficult race more dangerous, increasing the chances of a crash.
Preservationists criticized the potential damage to historical artifacts, with some noting that the National Park Service didn’t ask anyone about the chance of damage to surrounding buildings. The National Gallery of Art had to conduct a study and take precautions in order to protect works of art, but Michelle Arcari Rose, a former associate general counsel at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, told the Washington Post earlier this month, “So whereas people think these grand prix races aren’t a problem, we certainly don’t know, right? It’s a huge risk to then unleash cars at 185 miles per hour in a place where we’ve never had cars really going more than 25 miles an hour.”
On social media, some complained about a lack of screens and enough concessions. WaPo reported that there was a spot on the Mall to buy food, and people inside the security zone had to navigate around the race course to find overpriced crabcakes and something resembling a hot dog. While some complained lack of water, Duffy went on Fox News to fluff the race, and claimed people could buy beer on the Mall for the first time, but that was a lie. People could buy beer and liquor at the UFC event at the White House. They could buy beer during Trump’s “Great American State Fair.” And 30 years ago, before Americans just accepted the tacti-cool security theater of a “post 9/11-world,” families would roll coolers full of beer onto the Mall.
On Reddit, several people posted photos of the saddest damn hot dogs. Eventually, some shops reportedly ran out of buns, and just gave people naked franks paper plates.
But I didn’t see any of that. F1 denied my press credentials. So it goes.
Formula 1 doesn’t exactly have the greatest public image. It’s historically niche, full of luxury brands and wealthy corporate sponsorships. Drivers act like fucking divas. Recently, one star driver refused to start a press conference until a journalist was ejected. Apparently, the journalist had previously hurt the driver’s feeling by asking an embarrassing question.
In recent years, fans have called races dull and full of incomprehensible jargon. They’ve argued F1 is an engineering and finance competition — where only the wealthiest teams can buy the best drivers, crews and engines — more than a sport.
A decade ago, F1 hitched its wagon to Liberty Media to boost its image. Their campaign leaned heavily into social media BS and behind-the-scenes streams and movie schemes. There’s an infinite number of PR stories claiming the “rebrand” has been a success, but that’s rather disingenuous. Formula 1 has always been a luxury sports brand aimed at wealthy spectators. The “rebrand” seems like it’s trying to trick young, poor kids into spending money on luxury apparel, like some kind of Reaganomics sportswashing.
It should be noted that FEC reports show Liberty Media’s shadowy CEO, John Malone, is also big GOP donor. He’s also one of the largest landowners in the world.
I didn’t bother trying to get one of the free tickets. There was overwhelming media coverage inside, and hardly anybody covering the story outside the bubble.
Reports claimed the event had about 150,000 people in attendance. Coincidentally that’s the same number of free tickets that were made available. Outside the gates, there were several thousand people hoping to catch even the faintest glimpse of something, but the layer upon layer of of security and fencing were so thick that there wasn’t much to see.
As with most Trump events, there were bootleggers selling knockoff hats, shirts, and other assorted golden crap. One of the more popular shirts was a riff off the Will Ferrell comedy Talladega Nights and featured a shirt with Trump in a racing onesie with the words, ”If you ain’t first, you’re last,” which completely missed the point of the film. A lot of sellers had the shirt, but I didn’t see anyone buying or wearing it.
When the race started, there was a small alley by Indiana Plaza, near the National Archives, that wasn’t completely blocked off. People had packed themselves in to the little space. They stood on their toes, craned their necks and balanced anxious children on their shoulders. Some stuck phones through the eight-foot security fence desperately hoping to snap a terrible, blurry photo or video of something wholly indecipherable.
Over at the corner of 7th and E Streets, there was a slope that overlooked turn five. With my telephoto lens I could barely capture the brake lights of the cars seven blocks away. There were a few hundred people attempting to do something similar with cellphone cameras.
Some clung to security fences, or stared at a livestream on their phones. Depending on where you stood, you could feel the airspeed wobbles in the pavement. The roar of the cars was deafening, even from a few blocks away.
It seemed like everywhere you turned there were miles of security fencing, federal agents, police and National Guard. Over off Constitution Avenue, I saw a father holding his son on his shoulders. The only thing I could see was a partially obscured sign that read “Freedom.”
GO, SPEED RACIST, GO!
OT: Yeah, she sounds sane.
"A review of Natalie Harp's now-removed social media feed has uncovered years showing personal devotion to Donald Trump. On January 6, 2021 over 150 posts were deleted. During Trump's first impeachment, Harp tweeted Bible verses, including a call to "vindicate" him "against an unfaithful nation."
https://bsky.app/profile/rawstory.com/post/3mttjdiwidn2a