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.

. . .

Freedom 250 Grand Prix race course and surrounding event area map provided by the city of Washington DC.

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.

Flyovers seen from outside the ticketed security bubble in Washington DC during the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. Aug. 23, 2026.

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.

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.\

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.”