California Sen. Adam Schiff accused President Trump of blowing taxpayer dollars on Washington's first-ever IndyCar race, only to face a swift public correction from a driver who pointed out the event was bankrolled by a private corporation.
Schiff posted his attack on X on Sunday, sharing video of Trump waving the green flag at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, a race held on a 1.7-mile street circuit surrounding the National Mall as part of the nation's America250 birthday celebrations. The Democratic senator framed the event as a misuse of public funds and a deliberate distraction from economic pain.
One problem: Penske Corporation paid for the race. And the man who told Schiff so was Graham Rahal, a veteran IndyCar driver who had just finished 13th in the event. Rahal fired back on X within hours, calling the senator's premise wrong on the facts and wrong on the spirit of the occasion. The exchange, Fox News Digital reported, drew a pile-on from commentators and media figures who accused Schiff of skipping basic fact-checking before hitting "post."
Schiff's post leaned hard on the idea that the Freedom 250 was another example of presidential vanity financed by the public. He wrote:
"While you struggle with the cost of gas, Trump offers you the spectacle of an IndyCar race hoping you will not notice. More taxpayer money spent on his self-aggrandizing distractions. And you get higher taxes and higher costs."
The senator offered no sourcing for his claim that taxpayer money funded the race. He did not cite a budget line, a contract, or a federal expenditure report. He saw Trump at a race, assumed the worst, and posted.
Rahal was not interested in letting the claim stand. He responded directly on X:
"No, no, Adam. He wanted you to notice and bask in the pride of being American, watch great racing and patriotism on display. 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."
Rahal added that "hundreds of thousands of Americans, blue & red, as well as fans from all over the world" had enjoyed the event. His point was plain: the race brought visitors and revenue to Washington, and no one raided the Treasury to make it happen.
Rahal's claim was not just his own assertion. Bud Denker, president of Penske Corporation, told NBC's Washington affiliate, on camera, at the track, that Penske was footing the bill. Asked directly who was paying for the Freedom 250, Denker answered simply: "We are."
Denker went further, explaining that the company was raising "some revenue" through sponsors who purchased suites built along the course, but that the event was not intended to be a "break-even" venture. In other words, Penske was absorbing the cost as a corporate investment, not passing it to taxpayers. The only public expenditure referenced in the reporting involved security, which was handled through standard federal funding provided to Washington for major events, the same kind of support the city receives for any large gathering.
Penske Corporation, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Reading, Pennsylvania, is an automotive and logistics company. Its racing arm, Team Penske, fields cars in both NASCAR and IndyCar. Roger Penske, the company's leader, has a long relationship with the sport and with Trump. The president signed an executive order on January 30, 2026, outlining plans for the D.C. race as part of the country's 250th anniversary celebrations. Trump waved the green flag Sunday and took a lap of honor around the circuit. He and Melania Trump attended the event together.
Schiff's post drew responses from across the political right, and none of them were gentle about the senator's failure to verify his central claim before publishing it.
Former electronics executive Sam Antar put it bluntly:
"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."
Antar noted that Schiff "apparently didn't bother checking who actually paid for the race before blaming Trump for 'more taxpayer money spent.'" The criticism was specific: Schiff had a factual premise, and the premise was wrong.
Breitbart editor Joel Pollak kept his response shorter: "What kind of loser posts this? People had fun." A conservative commentator posting under the name "Bad Hombre" pointed out the private funding and then turned the taxpayer-spending argument back on Schiff's own party, posting an image of a White House lawn event during the Biden administration featuring transgender and LGBT activists. "The race was privately funded by Penske/IndyCar," the commentator wrote. "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?"
That $1.3 million figure was the commentator's own claim and was not independently verified. But the contrast landed: Schiff had accused Trump of wasting public money on a race that turned out to be privately funded, while his own side had faced no similar scrutiny over events that actually did draw on the public purse.
The White House did not hold back. Spokesman Davis Ingle issued a statement that went after Schiff's motives directly:
"It's a complete disgrace that Pencil-Neck Adam Schiff is willing to trash the United States of America during its historic 250th birthday celebrations simply because he hates President Trump. The great people of California deserve better."
Ingle framed Schiff's criticism as driven by personal hostility toward the president rather than any genuine fiscal concern. The statement did not address the funding question in detail, it did not need to. Penske's own president had already answered it on camera.
Fox News Digital reached out to both Rahal and Schiff's office for further comment. No responses were reported.
The Freedom 250 was not Trump's first turn at a racetrack as president. He became the first president since Ronald Reagan to attend a Daytona 500, and he has hosted NASCAR drivers and former NASCAR CEO Brian France at campaign rallies. His executive order bringing IndyCar to Washington tied the race to the broader America250 celebrations marking the nation's founding, a framing that made Schiff's "distraction" argument harder to sustain. The event was, by design, a patriotic spectacle. Kyle Kirkwood won the race.
Schiff's record on factual claims has drawn scrutiny before, and Sunday's episode fit a familiar pattern: a sweeping accusation built on an assumption that collapsed the moment someone checked. Rahal checked. Denker confirmed. And Schiff, as of the reporting, had not corrected or withdrawn his post.
When your entire argument is that the other side wasted taxpayer money, it helps to make sure taxpayer money was actually spent. Schiff skipped that step, and the internet did the homework for him.
