Trump’s D.C. Car Race Is the Best of Populism

History records that in the year 67, the Roman emperor Nero participated in a chariot race at the Olympic Games. The mad emperor, who would become infamous for all time for overseeing Rome’s burning while he (almost certainly apocryphally) played the violin, crashed in the race but was declared the victor anyway.

Nero may have taken things to egomaniacal extremes, but massive athletic spectacles were par for the course. The gladiatorial games were designed as a sort of tribute that powerful politicians and wealthy sponsors would hold for the entertainment and bonding of the masses. It was important and relatively harmless to let the people have their fun. There was, after all, no Netflix in ancient Rome.

We do have Netflix now, but very little compares to the thrill of live racing, as Nero learned. So for all the same reasons that Romans had chariot races, President Donald Trump intuited that it would be a crowdpleaser to host last weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix, an IndyCar race, in downtown Washington, D.C.