The upcoming Freedom 250 Grand Prix is making the National Mall look more like a sideshow. Photos of the preparation for the Indycar race this weekend show grandstands, finish lines, and signage all around the area in the nation’s capital. Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty ImagesIt’s unusual to see corporate signage and bleachers near the Capitol building, but that’s how President Trump wants to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The roads around the Mall are normally devoted to cars and tour buses at this time of year as tourists visit its national landmarks, museums, and monuments. But the streets look eerily empty except for construction workers, vehicles, and the barriers that will turn the area into a racetrack. Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Mall has been through a lot in Trump’s second term, from the heavily botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to that sparsely attended flop known as the Great American State Fair. He damaged the grass with his Independence Day celebrations and blamed nonexistent vandals for it when it was his own fault, just like with the pool disaster. Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty ImagesAndrew Harnik/Getty ImagesNow, the capital of the United States of America is about to see its first ever auto race. Under any other president, this might be considered cool, but now, the public is wondering not only how he’ll mess it up, but the damage he could cause to important national landmarks.Andrew Harnik/Getty ImagesAndrew Harnik/Getty ImagesEditor’s Pick:Air Force Major Jason Watson—who was arrested on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building last month while calling for President Trump’s impeachment—has been arrested again.Watson was detained on Tuesday, just one day after an exclusive CNN interview in which he said the president was “violating the Constitution, breaking the law, [and] engaged in rampant corruption.” Watson is currently in pretrial confinement in Maryland based on “allegations of continued misconduct” according to the Air Force. It did not identify the specific misconduct allegations, although his attorney believes that his recent CNN appearance is to blame.“What is happening with President Trump is not normal. He has failed us,” Watson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday. “And not only is he a failure as president, he is flagrantly violating the Constitution, breaking the law, engaged in rampant corruption, and is killing Americans. And that is unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to all of us.”Air Force Maj. Jason Watson, who was arrested on the steps of the US Capitol after calling for Trump & Vance to be impeached and removed from office, speaks out to @ErinBurnett in his first interview after his arrest: “[Trump] is flagrantly violating the constitution, breaking… pic.twitter.com/fB1F2G3rDz— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) August 18, 2026 Watson’s July arrest came during a news conference with the Removal Coalition in which he called for Trump and Vice President JD Vance to be “impeached, convicted, and removed,” over their feckless leadership in the war on Iran. He was arrested and escorted off the premises while in full uniform and holding an “Impeach. Convict. Remove” sign. He was placed under a gag order and could still be court-martialed or removed from the Air Force.In an unprecedented act of dissent, active-duty USAF Major Jason Watson was arrested on the Capitol steps after calling for the impeachment & removal of Donald Trump. Risking his career to uphold his constitutional oath, his arrest marks a historic moment. ✊🏻✊🏿✊🏼✊🏾✊🏽#DemsUnited pic.twitter.com/quFmuxKxoQ— TizzyWoman 🗽 ☮️ ~ Keep moving forward (@tizzywoman) July 1, 2026 Watson is an active duty service member who is placing his 17-year Air Force career on the line for exercising his First Amendment right—and his lawyers think he’s very well become a target for it.“Nothing that is worth doing is something that you can do for free. Everything that is worthwhile is going to cost something. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to require sacrifice,” Watson told Burnett. “So all that I could do was ask myself: ‘What’s the highest price that I’m willing to pay?’ And this is what I ultimately came up with.”Editor’s Pick:In the middle of showing off work on the new White House helipad, President Trump unveiled yet another construction project, previously unknown to the public.Trump told reporters to join him on the building’s South Lawn Wednesday where he excitedly revealed that he replaced the asphalt on the White House’s driveway with white granite mined from California, CNN reports.“This was always asphalt, which is very basic, not appropriate for a great house—for a great place like the White House,” Trump said over loud construction noise while gesturing at the newly redone driveway, which he described as made with a “very special stone.”Trump, clearly feeling low on attention today, is outside the White House ranting and raving like a lunatic about his various vanity projects around the White House pic.twitter.com/X7HzDGLUdA— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2026 Trump then went on and on about the new helipad under construction at the White House, detailing how he made workers redo weeks of work on the project because he didn’t like the helipad’s angle.“I felt it was too much slope. It’s a slope for the rain, but I felt it was too much slope,” Trump said, adding that the helipad was now “dead flat.”“Sorry to take an extra week and a half, but lifting it up was one of the best things we’ve ever done, lifting it up, right? I’m sure you didn’t like that,” Trump later told workers on the grounds.Trump also bragged about new grass on the White House lawn, claiming that newly added topsoil has “a lot of good ingredients in that earth for grass. If you’re grass, you’re very happy.” Without any shame or worry about a conflict of interest, he then revealed the grass was “given free of charge by Scotts Miracle-Gro. Scotts. And Scotts is a great company. They actually contributed to my campaign, I must be honest, you’ll figure that one out.” Trump: "It was given free of charge by Scotts Miracle-Gro. Scotts. A great company. They actually contributed to my campaign ... I want to thank Scotts." pic.twitter.com/MPFCyBlnvX— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 19, 2026 The president has spoken about his expensive pet construction projects, especially his White House ballroom, more than any other topic in 2026 except for the war in Iran, according to a Politifact analysis. It’s pretty obvious what Trump cares about more than anything else, and it comes at the expense of the American people.Editor’s Pick:A woman has accused California Democratic Representative Jimmy Gomez of sexually assaulting her.This comes two days after the House Ethics Committee announced a probe into Gomez for reports of sexual misconduct—which Gomez claimed were “consensual” and “personal mistakes outside [his] marriage.” This most recent allegation contradicts that, and of course raises the seriousness of an already troubling allegation.“We represent one of the women who was interviewed by the House Committee on Ethics about her experience of sexual harassment and assault by Representative Jimmy Gomez,” her attorneys wrote in a statement. “Contrary to Representative Gomez’s assertion in his statement, his actions were not ‘consensual in nature’ with respect to our client. We fully expect that the House Committee on Ethics will come to the same conclusion in its investigation.”The initial ethics probe was triggered by a New York Post report that accused Gomez of kissing a young female congressional aide in 2023. Gomez was close personal friends with disgraced former California Representative Eric Swalwell, who himself resigned in April amidst multiple sexual assault allegations.Gomez’s development adds him to the growing, bipartisan list of sitting congressmen who have either been accused, investigated for, or stepped down after sexual assault and/or misconduct allegations in the last two years. The list includes Representatives Cory Mills, Max Miller, Matt Gaetz, Tony Gonzales, Swalwell, and Gomez.Gomez has yet to comment on the heightened accusations. Editor’s Pick:The Department of Justice is arguing that it is not independent from President Trump even as it tries to claim that the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey isn’t vindictive.In a court filing Tuesday, federal prosecutors argued that “The Chief Executive directing his subordinates to exercise core Executive functions is a feature, not a bug, of our constitutional system,” claiming that the idea that the DOJ is independent from the president is “antithetical to the constitutional separation of powers,” and, “as a matter of historical analysis, it is a myth.”At the same time, the DOJ tried to argue that the charging prosecutor in the case against Comey, U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle, acted independently from Trump without any pressure from his superiors.“No one ordered or even suggested that Boyle pursue the ongoing investigation or seek an indictment,” the filing said, contending that Attorney General Todd Blanche didn’t discuss the case with Boyle until the day before the trial.Comey is trying to have the case dismissed, filing a motion on the grounds that Trump was deeply involved in the case, pointing to Trump’s Truth Social post directing former Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after him as proof. Trump also requested that Secret Service agents questioning the former FBI director send their notes to him to review.Comey is facing federal charges because the government is trying to argue that his 2025 social media post of seashell art reading “86 47” constituted a threat of violence against the president. Comey asserts that his indictment “effectuates a yearslong campaign by the President to use the criminal process to punish Mr. Comey for his protected speech and because of the President’s deep-seated animosity.”The DOJ’s own actions seem to back up the claim that Trump is only trying to get revenge on Comey for trying to stay independent during his FBI tenure, instead of pledging unconditional loyalty to the president.