Sen. Adam Schiff accused President Trump of blowing taxpayer dollars on the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., but the race was privately funded, and the people who actually drove in it were quick to say so.
Schiff posted his criticism on X alongside video of Trump waving the green flag at the inaugural IndyCar street race around the National Mall. "While you struggle with the cost of gas, Trump offers you the spectacle of an IndyCar race hoping you will not notice," the California Democrat wrote. He followed up: "More taxpayer money spent on his self-aggrandizing distractions. And you get higher taxes and higher costs."
The problem for Schiff: the race was not funded by the federal government. Penske Corporation, the major automotive firm based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Reading, Pennsylvania, bankrolled the event. Penske President Bud Denker confirmed as much in an interview with Washington's NBC affiliate at the track. Asked who was paying for the Freedom 250, Denker answered plainly: "We are."
Denker added that Penske was covering the vast majority of costs, with some revenue raised through sponsors and suites built along the 1.7-mile street circuit. He said the event was not intended to be a "break-even" venture. Security was handled by local and federal law enforcement through the kind of federal funding routinely provided to Washington for major events, not a special Trump expenditure.
IndyCar driver Graham Rahal, who finished 13th in the Freedom 250, responded directly to Schiff on X. Rahal, the son of well-known motorsports driver and executive Bobby Rahal, did not hold back.
"No, no, Adam. He wanted you to notice and bask in the pride of being American, watch great racing and patriotism on display."
Rahal continued: "Not only that, this was privately funded, not government although it drove thousands of folks to the DC area that have never been. That's economic impact for you." He added that "hundreds of thousands of Americans, blue & red, as well as fans from all over the world loved the Freedom250."
Schiff's post drew a wider pile-on. Former electronics executive Sam Antar wrote that Schiff "apparently didn't bother checking who actually paid for the race before blaming Trump for 'more taxpayer money spent.'" Antar said Schiff "saw Trump, started typing, and skipped the part where you check the facts first. That's how you end up volunteering for your own Community Note."
Breitbart editor Joel Pollak kept it shorter: "What kind of loser posts this? People had fun."
It is not the first time Schiff has stumbled into a political own-goal. The senator has a pattern of leading with outrage and sorting out the details later, a tendency that has surfaced in other confrontations within his own party.
A conservative commentator posting under the name "Bad Hombre" went a step further, replying to Schiff with an image of then-President Joe Biden posing with attendees at a White House lawn gala featuring transgender and LGBT activists. "The race was privately funded by Penske/IndyCar," the commentator wrote, before pivoting: "But now that we're on the topic of taxpayer-funded events, why were you cool with forcing taxpayers to spend $1.3 million on this?" The $1.3 million figure was not sourced or documented in the exchange.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle responded to Schiff more sharply, calling it "a complete disgrace" that the senator "is willing to trash the United States of America during its historic 250th birthday celebrations simply because he hates President Trump." Ingle added: "The great people of California deserve better."
The broader Democratic landscape has not made Schiff's position easier. Internal tensions among party leaders, from House fights over FISA renewal to questions about the direction of the progressive wing, have left elected Democrats scrambling for clean lines of attack against the administration.
Trump signed an executive order on January 30, 2026, in the Oval Office outlining plans to bring an IndyCar race to the streets of the nation's capital as part of America250 celebrations marking the country's 250th anniversary. The Freedom 250 Grand Prix, run on a 1.7-mile circuit surrounding the National Mall, marked Washington's first-ever IndyCar event.
Trump arrived at the race with First Lady Melania Trump, greeted racing officials and drivers, waved the green flag to start the event, and later took a lap of honor around the circuit. FOX Sports announcer Leigh Diffey called the start. Kyle Kirkwood won the race.
Trump has cultivated a relationship with American motorsports for years. He became the first president since Ronald Reagan to attend a Daytona 500 and has hosted several NASCAR drivers and former NASCAR CEO Brian France at campaign rallies. Roger Penske, who leads Penske Corporation and owns Team Penske, a racing organization that fields drivers in both NASCAR and IndyCar, organized the D.C. event.
The race drew fans from across the country to a city not traditionally associated with motorsports. Rahal's claim of "thousands" of new visitors to the D.C. area was not independently verified, but the event's scale and the involvement of a major private corporation in footing the bill undercut Schiff's central complaint before it even gained traction.
Other prominent California Democrats have faced their own political headwinds in recent months. Governor Gavin Newsom disclosed that the DOJ is investigating him and his wife, framing the probe as retaliation, a familiar reflex from a party that increasingly treats accountability as partisan overreach.
Fox News Digital reported reaching out to both Rahal and Schiff for further comment. No responses were noted in the reporting.
Meanwhile, the broader question of Democratic leadership and direction continues to simmer beneath episodes like this one. Schiff's post did not just misstate who paid for the race. It revealed a reflex: see Trump, assume the worst, skip the facts, and post.
When the instinct to attack outruns the willingness to check, the only person who ends up looking reckless is the one holding the phone.