President Donald Trump was widely mocked after video footage of him waving the starting flag for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on Sunday went viral.
Washington, D.C., hosted the inaugural Freedom 250 Grand Prix on Sunday, turning downtown streets, including part of Pennsylvania Avenue, into an IndyCar circuit as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
IndyCar owner Roger Penske, a longtime Trump ally who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from him in 2019, played a key role in bringing the race to Washington. Penske has said he had pursued a D.C. race for years, while Trump later claimed that the project came together within minutes of Penske approaching him.
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump opened the event with a ceremonial lap in the presidential limousine, after which Trump waved the green flag to start the race.
And he sure did wave it around.
And as weird as this looked, the White House took the display as a signal that everyone should "Trust in Trump."
Others weren't too convinced, and proceeded to mock the president in response.
Speaking of flags, it was just days ago that Trump raised eyebrows for randomly boasting that he's "very good at flagpoles" while discussing his various White House construction projects with members of the press.
Trump, per CNN's Kasie Hunt, "spent 32 minutes…explaining in painstaking detail the changes that he’s bringing to the People’s House.” And at one point, he bragged about the “two beautiful flagpoles on both sides of the White House.” At one point, Trump even said, "It’s a tapered pole, great — I’m very good at flagpoles!”
Trump's remark raised more concerns about his cognitive fitness for office, and former Illinois GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger observed that "if you were sitting down with your uncle or your grandfather or your parents and they were talking like that, you'd start to ask some follow-up questions to make sure they were okay."
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