Sen. Adam Schiff accused President Trump of blowing taxpayer dollars on the Freedom 250 IndyCar race in Washington, but an IndyCar veteran and the event's own organizers say Penske Corporation privately bankrolled the whole thing.
Schiff, the California Democrat, posted his broadside on X on Sunday alongside video of Trump waving the green flag at the historic 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," Schiff wrote. "More taxpayer money spent on his self-aggrandizing distractions. And you get higher taxes and higher costs."
The problem: the central claim, that taxpayers footed the bill, appears to be wrong. And the correction came fast.
IndyCar driver Graham Rahal, the son of well-known motorsports figure Bobby Rahal, responded directly to Schiff on X. Rahal, who finished 13th in the Freedom 250, did not hold back about the senator's factual error, or his framing.
As Fox News Digital reported, Rahal wrote:
"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 loved the Freedom250." His rebuttal landed squarely on the funding question, the factual linchpin of Schiff's entire attack.
Rahal was not alone. Penske Corporation President Bud Denker told Washington's NBC affiliate at the track that Penske was paying for the event. "We are," Denker said flatly when asked who was footing the bill. He explained that the company was "raising some revenue by having sponsors with the suites I'm building along the course," but that the Freedom 250 was not intended to be a "break-even" venture. In other words, Penske expected to lose money on it, voluntarily.
Schiff's claim that the race represented "more taxpayer money spent" ran headlong into the organizer's own on-the-record statement that private dollars covered the vast majority of costs. Security was handled by local and federal law enforcement through existing federal funding provided to Washington for major events, a standard arrangement for large-scale gatherings in the capital, not a special Trump expenditure.
The pile-on was swift. Former electronics executive Sam Antar captured the dynamic 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 added that Schiff "apparently didn't bother checking who actually paid for the race before blaming Trump for 'more taxpayer money spent.'"
Schiff has a long history in the political arena, particularly around intelligence oversight, a role that presumably demands precision with facts. His willingness to fire off a claim this easily debunked raises questions about whether the post was about accuracy or simply about opposing anything Trump touches. It fits a broader pattern among Democratic figures facing backlash for prioritizing partisan attacks over substance.
Conservative commentator "Bad Hombre" pointed out the private funding and then flipped the taxpayer-spending argument back on Schiff: "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?", posting an image of then-President Joe Biden at a White House lawn gala featuring transgender and LGBT activists.
Breitbart editor Joel Pollak kept it shorter: "What kind of loser posts this? People had fun."
As Breitbart noted, the Freedom 250 was a historic first-of-its-kind race on the streets of Washington, drawing fans from across the country and abroad, hardly the kind of event that deserved to be reduced to a partisan grievance.
President Trump signed an executive order on January 30, 2026, outlining plans to bring an IndyCar race to the streets of the nation's capital as part of America250 celebrations, the country's semiquincentennial, or 250th birthday. The 1.7-mile street circuit surrounded the National Mall.
Trump arrived at the Freedom 250 with First Lady Melania Trump, greeted racing officials and drivers, and took a lap of honor before waving the green flag. FOX Sports announcer Will Buxton called the race. Kyle Kirkwood won.
Trump has long embraced motorsports. He became the first president since Ronald Reagan to attend the Daytona 500, and he has hosted NASCAR drivers and former NASCAR CEO Brian France at campaign rallies. The Freedom 250 fit that pattern, a celebration of American racing culture staged in the heart of the capital. Penske Corporation, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Reading, Pennsylvania, bankrolled the event through Roger Penske's business empire, which also fields drivers in NASCAR and IndyCar through Team Penske.
The White House did not let Schiff's attack pass without a response. Spokesman Davis Ingle called it "a complete disgrace" that Schiff was "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 exchange fits a familiar dynamic in which prominent Democratic voices take shots at the administration and the White House fires back hard.
Fox News Digital reached out to both Rahal and Schiff for further comment. No responses were noted.
Schiff's career in the Senate and before that in the House was built substantially on his role in intelligence committee work, a field where getting the facts right is supposed to matter. His involvement in surveillance and oversight debates gave him a national profile as someone who insisted on accountability and transparency from government officials.
Yet on Sunday, Schiff posted an accusation about taxpayer spending without checking who actually paid for the event. Penske's own president had already gone on the record with a local NBC affiliate saying the company was covering the costs. The information was available. Schiff either did not look for it or did not care.
The senator is not the only California Democrat facing uncomfortable questions lately. Governor Gavin Newsom recently disclosed that the DOJ was investigating him and his wife, a development that has added to the sense that the state's top Democrats are spending more time on political combat than on governing.
Schiff's post accused Trump of hoping Americans "will not notice" rising costs. But what Americans noticed instead was a senator who got the basic facts of his own attack wrong, and a privately funded celebration of American racing that drew fans of every political stripe to the nation's capital.
If you want to lecture the public about accountability, it helps to check your own receipts first.
