Trump admin's Freedom 250 event caused $1.8M diesel spill cleanup on National Mall

Government Spent Nearly $2 Million on No-Bid Cleanup After Trump-Linked Oil Spill on National Mall

The U.S. government paid almost $2 million in a no-bid emergency contract to clean up a diesel spill that occurred under the supervision of Freedom 250, the shadowy organization through which President Donald Trump is administering semiquincentennial celebrations.

In May, Freedom 250 and a Trump-tied event management company, Event Strategies Inc., installed temporary lighting while setting up the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. On May 20, fuel lines on the lighting equipment spilled at least 30 gallons of fuel onto the Mall. The fuel seeped underground, contaminating rainwater repositories used to irrigate the area. A second spill of an unknown quantity occurred shortly after.

The government awarded a "rushed, no-bid contract" of $1.8 million for the cleanup, reported Anna Kramer of NOTUS on Friday. It took two months for the contract—awarded to Maryland-based Custom Lawn Service Inc.—to be posted publicly. Officials told Kramer the delay was due to the "emergency nature of the situation."

Government records reported in May by The New York Times suggest the spill was due to negligence, originating "from event-related equipment that lacked required secondary and tertiary containment measures." However, the Trump administration described the incident as the work of left-wing saboteurs, alleging that vandals slashed the fuel lines.

Typically, the government does not foot the bill for such cleanups. Permit holders are usually held "liable for the environmental mitigation after a spill of such magnitude," NBC News reported last month. Hundreds of concerned citizens petitioned for Freedom 250—not the taxpayer—to be made financially responsible, but their calls apparently went unheeded.

The $1.8 million price tag is also markedly higher than initial estimates. According to the Times, the National Park Service in May was seeking a contractor for $1.1 million, and an Interior Department spokesperson said the cleanup "could end up costing far less."

Read more about Freedom 250: How Trump Lied to People Trying to Donate to America250

Trump Administration Threatens to Withhold Federal Grants Unless States "Scrub" Voter Rolls

The Trump administration has promised to stonewall federal grants unless states "scrub" their voter rolls.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin openly threatened to defund state governments that fail to "secure" future election cycles during a press conference in Washington on Friday morning.

The pledge came hours after Donald Trump delivered a national address that included numerous factual inaccuracies and vast exaggerations about how he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, and weaponized those conspiracies in an attempt to undermine American trust in future elections.

"Working with [Commerce] Secretary [Howard] Lutnick, we are going to make our security enhancements mandatory. Meaning that if these states want a grant, and they want to be reimbursed to run federal elections, they are going to have to implement security issues," Mullin said. "Just security issues. We're not trying to get into anything else, but we're saying that the machines have to be secured and that your voter registration lists need to be scrubbed. We need to make sure that individuals legally able to vote are voting."

The Homeland Security chief further threatened that state officials who refuse to comply with Washington's demands could be jailed for their disobedience.

"If the states choose not to participate with the state program, and they choose not to participate in securing the elections, we will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states, and hold them—the election officials—accountable," Mullin said. "If the election officials, once we gave them the information..."