Trump’s Big Race Plagued by Chaos as Fans Swelter
Racegoers came for the speed and spectacle but found plenty of frustration along the way.
Doug Mills/Pool via REUTERS
President Donald Trump’s IndyCar race hit the National Mall amid logistical chaos, as attendees sweltering in the heat were forced to stand in long lines for water.
Thousands of people descended on Washington, D.C., on Sunday for the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix, a race created by an executive order Trump signed.
In a pre-race interview on the track, the 80-year-old president touted his role in getting the event off the ground, claiming it “got done in about 15 minutes” after multiple earlier failed attempts.
“It’s turned out to be much bigger than we ever even thought possible,” he told Fox Sports. “You have a lot of people that want to come, so it’s turned out to be, I think, bigger and better.”
But Trump’s “bigger and better” race appears to have needed some logistical fine-tuning.
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D.C.-based journalist Amanda Moore captured the race’s apparent shortage of drinking water stations on video, showing a sea of attendees lined up at a booth with a sign reading “WATER.”
People queue for merchandise during the Freedom 250 Grand Prix IndyCar series race.
Aaron Schwartz/REUTERS
“This is one of the lines for water at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix,” Moore wrote on X. “People in the front told me they have been waiting for half an hour.”
Those waiting were left standing in the sun as temperatures climbed to 84 degrees on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
“You can only get drinks in the middle, so if you are on the sides where you can see the actual track, you also have to stand in line to get bridge access to cross the track,” Moore added in a second X post.
Some complained that the event lacked enough grandstands. Trump climbed into the presidential limousine for an honorary lap around the track before the race.
Tierney Cross/REUTERS
Others complained that the event lacked enough grandstands to accommodate the more than 150,000 people who were expected to attend the race.
“This grandstand is full and there is a massive queue to get into the grandstand once space opens,” one attendee wrote on X alongside a video showing a long line snaking around the National Mall as spectators waited for seats to become available.
Moore later noted that the chaos continued even after the checkered flag, with long lines forming on bridges as thousands tried to leave the event.
The White House and IndyCar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The race’s apparent issues are reminiscent of the logistical and weather problems that plagued Trump’s state fair on the National Mall earlier this summer, when attendees at Trump’s Fourth of July speech were thrown into disarray after bad weather triggered an evacuation order. Trump eventually began his speech after a delay of more than 90 minutes, as crowds were still streaming back onto the grounds.
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