The presidential limousine known as “The Beast” is relatively quick for a vehicle tipping the scales at more than nine tons, but it’s not nearly as fast as an IndyCar. That didn’t stop Donald Trump from insisting on a televised “lap of honor” around the Freedom250 Grand Prix course that ran though the heart of Washington, D.C., Sunday. The route went down Pennsylvania Avenue and past the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool- the renovation boondoggle that his administration has now spent $14.7 million to fix.
He then waved the green flag to kick off the race, the first in the nation’s capital since the Cadillac Grand Prix saw Formula One cars racing through the streets nearly a quarter-century ago. Trump’s appearance was accompanied by other ostentatious martial displays including military flyovers and participation by Medal of Honor recipients, just like the UFC fight he’d ordered up on the White House lawn to mark his birthday earlier this summer. It was a Trumpian spectacle ostensibly meant to close out the MAGA-infused semiquincentennial celebrations in Washington — the rain-soaked July 4 fireworks, the shambolic Great American State Fair, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship event held on the president’s birthday.
But with the exception of the fireworks display (an annual event that was up-sized and MAGA-fied at Trump’s insistence) none of the Grand Prix was something that most of DC, let alone America, clamored for. Instead, the automotive event was the latest example of how Trump appears intent on pushing ahead with the things he likes — things the public hates — regardless of their impact on the public mood or his party’s midterm prospects. Trump is 19 months into the most aggressive physical reworking of central Washington any president has attempted, and every measure of its popularity, and of his, has moved one way.
His approval is running near 38 percent against 59 percent disapproval, and sits at 34 percent among independents — below the level that preceded his party's 41-seat loss in 2018. Polling on the construction program itself has found it unpopular since at least July. None of that produced a pause in Trump’s makeover ambitions.
The East Wing is gone, demolished for a ballroom costing around $400 million. The South Lawn has a granite helipad, and the Rose Garden is a patio with furniture matching the president’s Florida social club. But the president hasn’t been content to plow ahead on the symbolic legacy projects he wants to use to ensure he is remembered when he leaves Washington.
He’s also continuing his quixotic quest to upend decades of economic integration in North America by re-escalating his trade war with Canada, despite announcing a deal to avert further problems just six days earlier. At the time, he said 50 percent tariffs due to take effect on many Canadian goods had been held back three days, with the deal he touted including a claim that tariffs on American farm exports would go "down to zero,” calling it "a very good deal for both parties." The deal collapsed. Carney walked away from talks late Friday.
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