Trump’s DC Grand Prix Event Turns Into a Disaster

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C. has been an utter disaster. This is the IndyCar street race as part of Freedom 250 that the Trump regime has been talking about while the American people are struggling to afford groceries and gas and diesel and anything and everything. The Trump regime is focused on things like this, the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. I'll show you some photos of what it looked like outside in Washington, D.C., where they effectively shut down the city to build a 1.7-mile-long track around Washington, D.C. to race these IndyCars. You can see it was not all that crowded. The Trump regime claimed they were going to have hundreds of thousands of people there. They did not really have all that many people there. But also, it's proven to be, as everybody expected, it would be a very dangerous track for the racers. These cars really aren't meant to do that. They're not meant to do that. They're meant to do that. They're not meant to do street racing like this. I mean, there is some street racing that they do, but that's not really what they're supposed to. These cars were built for in areas like this. And so we knew that the Trump regime was spending a lot of time welding down 200 manhole covers ahead of this race. There were a lot of bumps on the street as well. And I was watching this, so you don't have to watch it. But it was IndyCar after IndyCar was crashing into the wall. One after the other, these very expensive cars were just like getting destroyed. And, you know, if you looked at what was happening as they're riding on the road, that's not meant for this type of racing. There was like a kicker bump before one of the intersections by like a crosswalk area, which kind of kicks the back end of the car and the back unloads. And what you see is the kind of rear tire brake pressure locks. And then the car is like, oh, my God, I'm going to die. The car loses control and then smashes into the wall. And it was like one car after one car smashing into the wall as I was watching this thing. So Saturday was the qualifying round and some of the practice sessions. Sunday is the actual race itself. And I think I'm worried about what's going to happen on Sunday based on what I've seen on Saturday. Doug Burgum, the interior secretary responsible for fabricating evidence against a two-time Olympic canoeist in the reflecting pool, David Hearn, in order to frame David Hearn. This is the type of stuff that Doug Burgum is doing right now. And so he's behind the IndyCar street race, Freedom 250 Grand Prix, that this is what like the Trump regime has been talking about this whole week. Again, while we're in a catastrophic war, while the American economy is in a catastrophic state. I mean, Donald Trump even addressed the fact that we're in a full-fledged trade war with Canada now as a result of his horrific conduct and behavior and bad faith negotiation. But this is what they're talking about. I mean, it's like an insane psychotic regime we have here in the United States. Doug Burgum earlier today was bragging that the manhole covers were being welded down. Play this clip. Mr. Secretary, you know, certainly hoping for a big crowd at this 250,000. I've seen the spectators safe during such an unprecedented event. Well, the Penske team and the IndyCar series team that helped build this thing have taken every precaution. You'll see these concrete barriers everywhere, the high fences. They've even gone so far as making sure they're welding. The manhole covers down so they don't get sucked up like a vacuum when these cars fly over the top of them. And of course, fans will be kept in a safe area. But it is a, there's a huge areas on the National Mall with large, large video screens where fans are going to be able to watch. We expect over a race weekend yesterday, today, and tomorrow, there could be a million people that are here in person. But, you know, shout out, shout out to the National Park Service, which managed the National Mall, our U.S. Park Police, and others, because it should be nonstop events. The great American state fair, the UFC fights, the record-setting, world record- winning, the World Cup, the World Cup, the World Cup, the World Cup, the World Cup. There'll be 40 million people that transverse the National Mall this year. It's never looked better. 153 homeless encampments all resolved. 1,000 sites of graffiti gone. 22 fountains that haven't worked for decades flowing again. 50 plus monuments restored and statues. The place looks beautiful. And of course, the crime statistics of D.C. are the envy of almost every other city because they're the lowest they've been here since 1900. And then you had transverse the National Wall this year. 154 homeless encampments all resolved. 155 homeless encampments all resolved. 156 fountains that are behind this event. And the whole thing is just bizarre and strange. I'll show you over here. You can see from one angle what it looked like from some of the buildings nearby. Why don't I bring it? I did this interview yesterday with Ben Weiss before the event took place. He's a reporter from Courthouse News in Washington, D.C. Here's what he said was going on. Let's bring in my interview with Ben Weiss. 156 fountains that are behind this event took place. before, um, most of them. have not driven in the simulators we were talking to some of the drivers today and some of them were going to be out there for the first time uh when practice starts tomorrow um but there have been no cars on track yet so it's hard to say exactly what the uh racing will look like how dangerous it will be um what the odds of of a crash are although there's some tight turns and uh some some folks in the press corps were asking drivers you know are you going to take it a little easy going into the first term considering no one's done this track or no one has driven this track in any serious way yet um and there were some mixed results i think people the drivers are are thinking about how to approach this because it it could be potentially you know uncharted territory for them now let's go to the next part which is dc proper right now i've heard the metro there were issues there on friday with photo ops and things like that and also some of the views that reporters were able to get i think were from embassy rooftops and so i'm curious what the fan experience is going to be on this and is there a how are people are there fans or is this more of the trump people saying you know the same way they said for the event uh american fair that there was hundreds of thousands of people a day and then we ended up seeing it was actually you know a handful of people and then they still went with hundreds of thousands of people what's what's your take from what you saw on friday well no doubt uh the road closure situation especially downtown dc has been frustrating i think for a lot of people who live in washington like i do and other people who i i talk to who you know are upset you know the national mall has been shut down in some capacity for for several months whether it's for the reflecting pool renovations or the state fair that happened uh you know a couple weeks ago and now this indy car race i think that that people are going to have to deal with that and i think it's going to be a lot of people are upset um about how difficult it is to traverse the center of of the capital right now um metro is you know metro in the summer is always uh the they're always track issues it took me an hour and a half to get home um but it was i think unrelated to the uh the grand prix um it's still sort of early uh the number of spectators i think that we'll potentially see uh has not at all been reached there was no on-track activity no spectator activity and fan i think it's going to be the first full day of uh activity um on the track today tomorrow will be the first full day of uh events so that will be a better indicator i think of what the attendance is going to be like i know you know uh indy car the administration is saying there's going to be 140 000 people there i don't know if that will be the case i do know i've talked to some folks who said you know that they they gave up these tickets on a lottery system system and they were able to reserve 10 tickets just for themselves um or 10 tickets for you know between them and their friends um so i think there is some skepticism among people who are even going that there will be that size of crowd there but it's hard to say until you know there are people in the grandstands um as far as the actual uh viewing experience goes uh there are it doesn't seem like there's a lot of grandstand opportunity i think they're definitely the two big ones one of them is a suite um the president of penske has alluded that trump will be in one of those suites if he comes although they haven't confirmed whether or not he's actually going to watch the race um as for fans i think they're going to be mostly stuck watching uh on big tv screens sort of in the mall area which is kind of a wild concept i mean they're going to be showing up just it's very hot out there would be an understatement and the idea is that because there's really no viewing around pennsylvania avenue based on the way the track is structured and independence have and how they've constructed this there is a vip area whether or not trump even uses it but that's going to be where the corporate sponsors are and there's quite a bit of corporate sponsors i mean we're uh you know hearing that there's everybody from what boeing and starlink and delta and there's going to be um who amazon and gulfstream you know it's a it's a who's who of stocks that donald trump owns and a who's who of people the u.s does business with you know and so it sounds like there's an area for the vips and then there's very little grandstand for fans and then there's an area in the sweltering heat just if i'm understanding where you could watch on screens what is happening around you and you'll just hear the noises uh that's i mean to the best of my understanding i think that that's going to be um what the situation looks like that said if you know there are fewer than 140 000 people there it might be easier for folks to get closer to the track i don't know what that's going to look like yet um but i think that's going to be a good idea and i think that's going to be a good idea and i think that's going to be a good idea um the sponsorship i think is interesting because yeah i you know i'm a i'm a follower of indycar i'm aware of sort of the corporate uh sponsorships that exist around the series um i walked the track earlier today and it was unusual to see you know there's uh right along one of the retaining walls on the outside of the track uh a series of starlink bear uh branded barricades that's never that's something i've not seen before um definitely something unique to dc i know that some you know some sponsors uh for racing teams are coming back for dc uh open ai being one um so you're definitely seeing you know a a a type of sponsor return to uh sponsoring this race that seems appropriate for for washington right and um you know if it comes to a company like a starlink or some of these other companies here with data centers and some of these other companies here with military contracts i mean that money comes from a lot of taxpayers and has government contracts and goes from taxpayers to the government where you know we could be getting healthcare we could be getting lots of things but it's going to these government contracts and now there seems to be kicking back in the form of sponsorships also to further uh you know please a guy who may or may not even be there tomorrow in the vip say anything odd or strange or stood out to you that's worth mentioning before we go ben i think just the political situation surrounding this race is something that's been discussed a lot um i think you know there's there's a lot of discourse about whether or not this is merely you know an entertainment event to win the 250th anniversary uh i i think it's i think it's difficult um to have that conversation without a acknowledging the level of involvement that the administration's had obviously in putting this together but also in promoting their own political agenda um in in the promotion for this race uh and i think as the day goes on you know i'm going to spend some time talking to people on the ground spectators that show up more and more indycar drivers executives i think it's going to be uh important and interesting to explore how um indycar as an organization uh sets itself apart from the the political agenda because i think right now it's you know it's sort of inescapable that that conversation is going to be had yeah and i think um you know you hit on it and and i think that this is something we talk about a lot which is you know indycar could be great you enjoy watching it you know like people like watching ufc fights it's great people like watching a lot of different things all good the question becomes what happens when it becomes an arm of government propaganda seemingly and also does it devalue a product that is existing outside of a propaganda arm and you know does it make it a little more uncomfortable to watch a ufc fight or an indycar after you have to see your racers you know bragging about you know whatever the trump messages of the day while a lot of people are struggling out there a lot of people you see are struggling in in dc you know you look at the department stores convenience stores restaurants with lots of layoffs and you know and then and then you have this and it's you know anyway ben you'll be there all day uh today tomorrow the day after covering this so if you've got if you got photos you can share or videos you can share you know um we'd love to you know whatever whatever you can do we'd love it certainly i'll be locked in all right everybody hit subscribe let's get to seven million spend wise from courthouse news before you go our book wtf america is available for pre-order now it's the story of how we got here and how we fight our 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