Remarks: Donald Trump Delivers Remarks at a Freedom 250 Grand Prix Showcase - July 13, 2026

Thank you very much, everybody. What an honor. And we have that great music. We love great music. We have Roger with me, won 20 Indianapolis 500s. That's not bad. He was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by me when he won 17, and he just kept winning. It's not supposed to work that way, right? We thought he stopped, but he won and he's amazing.

He's been my friend for a long time. But I'm thrilled to be here with some of the most extraordinary figures in the history of motorsports and any sport, if you think about it. As we count down to the freedom 250 Grand Prix, this will be like no other race, ever. I don't think anything will ever be -- will ever top what we're going to be having.

It just happened with UFC. It got the highest ratings of any fight in history. This will get the highest ratings of any such race. It'll be one of the most unforgettable racing events the world has ever seen, and we have the most talented people. These people have a lot of courage on my right. I don't want to do what they did.

You could teach me, but it still takes something special, right? I know every one of you. What a -- what a great job you've done. I want to thank Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, who's phenomenal guy. He's doing a great job. Doing a great job. And the very, very legendary, Roger Penske, who is, uh I mean, there's nobody like him, I can't imagine, in the history of racing or maybe any other sport, to be honest with you.

Roger Penske. The president of Penske Corporation, Bud Denker. I want to introduce Bud. Thank you very much, Bud, what a great job. CEO of Fox Sports, Eric Shanks. Thank you very much, Eric. It's going to get a lot of -- are you prepared for this kind of rating? I don't know. It's going to be a big rating you're going to have.

The President of General Motors, Mark Reuss, and say hello to Mary and everybody. She's a fantastic person. It's a great company. It's a hot company. We just ordered a lot of Escalades for security purposes and, uh, we do a lot of business with -- with General Electric. And they're actually going now in the weapons-making business, and I think you do better with that than you did even in the cars.

So I want to thank you very much, Mark. And incredible IndyCar drivers Alex Palou, Felix Rosenqvist and David Malukas. and I've watched all three of you recently do very well. Thank you, very well. Better you than me. I don't want to -- I don't want to go 250 miles an hour with, uh, two inches separating my car.

I don't want to do that.

But what you've done was incredible, the last couple of races. Unprecedented events will take place next month right here in our nation's capital, on August 22nd and 23rd. It will be an awesome display of American patriotism and raw horsepower and ingenuity. You're seeing -- you're going to see cars at the level that they've never been at before, with cars racing more than 190 miles and even higher than that down Pennsylvania Avenue.

It wasn't exactly designed for that but what Sean Duffy has done with these incredible, brilliant people is really amazing. It's going to be a sight for the ages. It really will be something special. And they're going to go all around the National Mall at speeds that are not quite -- if we did that during the regular day, I think people would be put in jail perhaps for the rest of their lives, right?

It wasn't supposed to be that way, but it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be a beautiful -- a beautiful thing to watch. And this is the first racing event of its kind in Washington, DC's history, happening as part of our great celebration of the 250th anniversary of American freedom. The American people are invited to come watch this once in a lifetime total event.

And Roger and General Motors and Fox and everybody else. I will say, it's free. We thought -- they thought maybe we could, you know, they'd get so much money -- this is a ticket, you're probably having second thoughts, you said, well, I could -- we could have made a fortune. No, it's free, totally free and it's, uh, something they're doing for the country.

Uh, the country is doing incredibly well. We've never done this well. We're respected all over the world now and respected like never before. We have -- I was telling Roger before, we have $19.2 trillion being invested in the United States of America by other people in countries -- no country in the world has ever had anything like that.

And plants and factories and everything is being, right now, built as we speak, being built all over the country. There's never been any country that's as hot as we are right now. In addition to that, we have the strongest military in the world. You saw that with Venezuela. You're seeing that right now with Iran.

For 47 years -- 47 years in a row, they were pushing people around. They're not pushing us around, we're pushing them around. The Penske team held more than 80 meetings in 90 days on Capitol Hill to get this event to happen. This is over a period of years, and nothing happened. And when they came to see -- they said when they came to see the president, what did we work it out, in about 15 minutes, it was done.

And we picked a better track. We actually picked -- they went into something that was not as good and, uh, well, they were dealing with Democrats, what can I tell you? But it wasn't as good. And I said to the group, I said, is this the exact track that you want? And they said, you just can't do better than Pennsylvania Avenue, when you think of it. And that's going to be the straightaway.

It's going to be fantastic. This event is following in the footsteps of that event that I just mentioned, the UFC event, which we hosted Dana White, who's a fantastic man, what he's done, the great job. And this will be equally as breathtaking. The air show that we're going to have is going to be, along with the cars, is going to be something.

We did the greatest air show, I think, ever, on July 4th. They've never seen planes at that level. It was really quite a time. And then we had an event and it was rain and everybody was told to leave. There was lightning. And they didn't leave and I said, we can't not do it. So we went back. I said, everybody, let's come back and we ended up, we had 425,000 people when we started, and they were thinking that it was a number much bigger than ever anticipated.

And then everybody was told to go home and I heard about that. I said, no way. So we called them all back. We ended up with 152,000 people. It was, uh, it was actually made hotter -- this was made better and hotter by bad weather, believe it or not. I said, I don't care if I have to make the speech at 2:00 in the morning, it doesn't matter.

But on our 250th anniversary, America deserves the greatest celebration in the history of our country, in the history of the world, and I think this is it, and this is really a big part of the crescendo. So next month, these exceptional sportsmen, drivers, athletes, they're great athletes. Nothing -- nothing -- nobody can do -- they're born with something very special.

They're born with an ability to press that pedal all the way down to the ground. Most people can't do that. Very few people can. But they're beautiful cars. They're going to make freedom roar. This will be a freedom that's roaring like never before. So I'd like to now just ask Sean Duffy, this guy -- Sean is exceptional.

And you know what, people don't know he was the world record in going up logs, going up to the top of these stupid trees. I never saw anything like -- and Sean had -- how many years were you the champion of that? Five?

Five.

For five years, he was the world champion. He was the lumberjack. Who the hell knew that about Sean Duffy? And that -- because I like champions. He was the world champion for five years, going up a tree and coming down. He said going up wasn't bad -- bad, coming down was very dangerous. He broke his back a couple of times, little things like that, but he was the world champion at that, climbing the tree for five separate times.

And, you know, I respect -- we respect great champions and athletes. Swo you wouldn't believe it. That's my man. I heard -- I've known that for a long time. And he's married to Rachel, who's an incredible woman. She's a very big success on television, and we love their family, we love him. So I'd like to ask Sean to say a few words, and then Roger Penske is going to speak, and then we're going to be given a display of, uh, how to turn, -- how to put tires on a car very quickly.

So you're going to have a good time. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Well, first, uh, thank you, Mr. President. Um, as the Secretary of Transportation, uh, lumberjack sports, we used to move logs down rivers, uh, one of the first modes of transportation, so, uh, it's fitting. Thank you for the job. But it's great to be here with -- with two legends, one legend, uh, in presidential history, but another legend, Roger Penske, um, in motorsports history, uh, for this great -- this great day.

And, uh, just a little history that the president mentioned, um, the Department of Transportation was working with Fox Sports and the Penske's, and Bud Denker was working the hill and he did, he had over 80 meetings on the hill trying to make this event happen, because when you think about America 250, you also think about, uh, cars.

And when you think about cars, you do think about freedom. This all goes together. And we had some people, uh, who were creating problems for us on the hill. Um, not your team, Mr. President, the other team was creating problems. And so you don't go to the president with a half-baked idea, but, uh, we hit a roadblock.

And I called Roger, I said, Roger, you got to call the president and tell him about this great idea and can he move this forward? And the president's right, it was one phone call and the president said, done. We're going to we're going to celebrate America 250 with an IndyCar race, uh, for the first time in the US Capitol and so I appreciate that, Mr. President, for all you have done to make this event happen.

It would not be going on unless we had presidential engagement. And I agree, the UFC fight was remarkable. But America's birthday doesn't end on the 4th of July. Um, our birthday continues for the coming year and so to continue to celebrate America 250, it would only make sense that we would do that with this road race.

It's going to be August 23rd. Uh, the tickets are free. I, uh, the weather's not going to be 100 degrees in DC. It's -- I'm thinking like 75 maybe, in August, um, my mouth to God's ears. Um, but we hope everyone comes and checks out this race uh, and, um, it's going to be epic. And to the racers, uh, I got to go around the Indy track at 175 miles an hour, and that felt like it was really fast.

These guys are going 200, 250 around the track, true athletes. So to have you all here and to have the cars here is uh, is fantastic. And again, just finally, Mr. President, um, thank you for your leadership. You don't do anything, uh, that's small. Everything you do is big, it's huge, it's the best, it's the greatest.

Whether it's the UFC fight or an IndyCar race in the Capitol, we appreciate your leadership. Um, America loves you and thank you for making this happen.

Thank you very much. Great job.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and welcome, everybody, here today. It's an honor for me, Mr. President, to be here and be part of this celebration. When you think about 250 years of this country, it's an amazing time, it's a great place to live, it's a great place to work and I think we're fortunate to have the most important office in the world.

Give us the green light and then the checkered flag to have this event in August. Think about it, over 250,000 people signed up to come to this event, and we will be able to accommodate 100,000 each of the two days, and it's for free, as the president said. But we're honored -- I think it's an opportunity to showcase the technology, the speed, the partnerships and the athletes that make such a difference.

We think about the Indy 500 as an iconic race, but this is going to move right up there next to it as far as we're concerned, from the standpoint of the best in the world. So, Mr. President, thank you again for this opportunity.

And I think we have a special helmet for you. AM I right, Alex?

We do. It's a present for you, just for when you [Inaudible] --

We hope you will wear that when you're riding around in the beast, leading the field, come to the green flag. Again, thank you, sir. Bud Denker.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Roger. Thank you, Secretary Duffy. I also want to thank and recognize Ambassador Crowley over here as well, Monica Crowley, our ambassador of protocol, has been a partner of mine in this whole journey. Mayor Bowser. But importantly, the president of the United States. As he mentioned, I was on Capitol Hill for several months and trying to get the race around that -- that race track.

But you know what, it didn't happen. And things happen for the best, don't they? God shows us to have a different path here and that path was to bring this race down around the National Mall. Secretary Burgum's support, the mayor's support and of course, as the president said, within 24 hours of this idea changing under the city streets, we had an executive order in my inbox to review.

And then four days later, I was in his office here to sign it. I want to thank Eric Shanks, CEO of Fox Sports. It was Eric Shanks and my idea to bring this vision to our capital. And in 41 short days, you're going to see the remarkable athletes competing for the one and only trophy that they're ever going to possibly see here.

And that's the trophy to celebrate our country. Mark Reuss from General Motors, these are his beauties out here. This car over here, by the way, has 1250 horsepower and this will pace our field to the green flag 41 days from now. So, Mr. President, thank you again for your support. Thank you again for your leadership.

Thank you again for your vision. And with that, I'm going to have our driver, David Malukas, start that car. You're going to see this amazing pit crew here from Team Penske change four tires, fuel, in about 6.5 seconds. Let's see it, guys.

Great job.

Thank you, Mr. President.

[Inaudible] there you go. What do you think? What do you think, 41 days from now? Mr. President. Thank you.

So just, I want to thank everybody for being here. Our country is great. Our country is strong, powerful, respected again like never before and I'll see you in 41 days, or sooner. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much.