Donald Trump and OnlyFans models transform Miami GP into new Bizarro World
The Miami Grand Prix has gained a reputation in its brief existence for putting the show above the sport. A sea of celebrities pitch up every year, posting carefully-curated Instagrammable shots to their hundreds of millions of followers, helping to raise awareness of what is essentially a race around the Miami Dolphins stadium car parks. But the arrival of Donald Trump in the paddock on Sunday, ahead of the third edition of the race, surely trumped everything seen so far. It was through-the-looking-glass stuff. Completely surreal.
On a weekend off from his hush-money trial in New York, Trump’s arrival outside the McLaren garage had been heavily trailed, meaning half the paddock was waiting for the ex- (and possibly future) POTUS when he finally appeared at just after 2pm local time. Secret service agents parted a sea of onlookers, which included a scantily-clad OnlyFans model, Veronica Rajek, who strained to get a selfie with a man accused of paying to a porn star hush money to help sway a presidential election.
Whether it was wise of Formula One to have invited Trump, especially given the ongoing furore at Red Bull amid allegations of controlling behaviour levelled at Christian Horner by a female employee, which he denies, or of McLaren to have agreed to host him in their garage, was a moot point (McLaren’s Bahraini owners are understood to have good relations with Trump, and in fairness the former president was a good colour match for the papaya team).
But the backlash on social media was swift and vicious enough for McLaren to put out a statement just as the race began, stressing they were a “non-political organisation” but adding that they “recognised and respected” the office of President of the United States.
“So when the request was made to visit our garage on race day we accepted alongside the president of the FIA and the CEOs of Liberty Media and Formula 1,” the statement added.
Liberty’s Greg Maffei and Formula One’s Stefano Domenicali were indeed both waiting for Trump inside the McLaren garage, having gone in there 20 minutes earlier to await his arrival, along with FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem. But whoever invited him, if the goal was to raise awareness of the race, it worked.
The list of VIPs at Sunday’s race stretched the length of the Florida Keys and included Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, LeBron James, Shakira, Serena Williams, Rory McElroy, Zinedine Zidane and Kendall Jenner (294 million followers on Instagram). But Trump, it has to be said, was the biggest draw and the race organisers knew it.
Trump was even wheeled out to shake hands with children on a red carpet pre-race, as Fifa president Gianni Infantino watched on, another member of the rogue’s gallery.
Formula One and the Miami race organisers had clearly decided that eyeballs trumped everything, although they were also just as clearly nervous about the possible reaction. Tom Garfinkel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, had stressed to journalists earlier in the day that his race was apolitical.
It had been a big talking point in the build-up this year with race organisers having halted a Trump presidential campaign fundraiser being planned for the race, sending a cease-and-desist letter to Trump ally Steven Witkoff, a New York real estate tycoon, telling him he would not be allowed to use a suite at the race to fundraise for the former president.
According to the Washington Post, Witkoff allegedly plotted to host a fundraiser at the Paddock Club rooftop suite, charging potential attendees $250,000 a ticket to attend.
In a letter to Witkoff obtained by the Post, Miami Grand Prix organisers said: “It has come to our attention that you may be using your Paddock Club Rooftop Suite for a political purpose, namely raising money for a federal election at $250,000 a ticket, which clearly violates the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix suite license agreement … If this is true, we regret to inform you that your suite license will be revoked, you will not be allowed to attend the race at any time, and we will refund you in full.”
Witkoff told reporters that, with three American races now on the calendar, competing for bums on seats, his goal for the Miami race was to “bring people together” to create a unique environment. He spoke about a party he attended earlier in the week which summed up what he was trying to achieve.
“You know, there were some of the wealthiest people in the world,” he said. “CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world. There are NFL players, NBA stars, music stars, you know, and they’re all converging and hanging out spending time again. And we’re all kind of looking at each other. I was with one CEO of a huge bank, and he’s just like, ‘I can’t believe this room’. You know, and he’s been in a lot of rooms, you know what I mean? So it’s really amazing to see people of different ages, backgrounds, skin colour, you know, you got hip hop stars hanging out with CEOs of banks, hanging out with some billionaire, hanging out with, you know, an actress. This is like, it’s bizarro world.”
He got that last bit right.
