MS NOW host Rachel Maddow’s eponymous show may only be on one night a week, but she makes it count. As she neared the end of Monday’s episode, she sought to mock President Trump for how he waved the green flag at the start of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix over the weekend, suggesting he waved it for too long and didn’t know when to cut it out. However, there was a pretty major problem with her story: they were playing a clip of Trump on an obvious loop.
“If you ever get put in charge of starting a car race, if you ever are responsible for waving the green flag to start like an Indy car race,” Maddow kicked off the segment. “I have only one piece of advice for you: Sort out in advance how to hold the flag.”
She proceeded to play a clip of Trump holding the flag by the wrong end before flipping it around and a clip of Trump vigorously waving the flag for several seconds. “Oops. Wrong end. Oops. What is - It's a flag on a stick. How hard can it be? Once he figured it out with some help, though, he could not be stopped with the waggling in the waving,” she mocked.
However, as you can see from the embedded video, both the clips of Trump with the flag were played on an obvious loop. The three-second clip of Trump waving the flag was looped four times.
Last night MS NOW played a looped clip of Trump waving the green flag to start the Indy DC race and claims he didn't know when to stop waving, as if the obviously looped clip was a continuous video. pic.twitter.com/v2XjGqvWjQ
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 25, 2026
The loop was obvious when one observes the man over Trump’s right shoulder and the woman over Frist Lady Melania Trump’s left shoulder; their hands go from down at their sides to clapping repeatedly.
Their intent to deceive became clear during the handoff to The Last Word, when Maddow and her fellow MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell specifically discussed and mocked how long Trump was waving the flag for too long. O’Donnell even falsely suggested it was Trump’s first time waving a flag of any kind:
O'DONNELL: It seems like maybe a first time flag waver like like didn't know - It just - It's supposed to end like you're supposed to be finished at some point way waving the flag.
MADDOW: Even if you're very exuberant, it should come to an end.
“I saw Donald Trump trying to wave a flag for the very first time, just - just a few minutes ago, because you showed it to me on TV,” O’Donnell commended Maddow, before stammering, “I don't - Has anyone - Is there - So we're just left to guess about explanations for that or, or what.”
Here's Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell mocking Trump for supposedly not knowing when to stop waving the flag. Again, they played the clip on a loop:
O'DONNELL: It seems like maybe a first time flag waver like like didn't know - It just - It's supposed to end like you're… pic.twitter.com/50Z2zmlP8O— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 25, 2026
Maddow, a childless lesbian, suggested that the waving looked like “he was trying to diaper something.”
She finally found the words she was presumably looking for when she used “diaper” as a verb: “I was like, is he trying to wrap something? Swaddle? Is he swaddling something? Does he believe that this flag is supposed to be used as an implement for the accomplishing, for accomplishing some other purpose?”
“But I could not restrain myself from showing the flag tape,” she admitted her intentionality to O’Donnell.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
MS NOW’s The Rachel Maddow Show
August 24, 2026
9:53:25 p.m. EasternRACHEL MADDOW: If you ever get put in charge of starting a car race, if you ever are responsible for waving the green flag to start like an Indy car race. I have only one piece of advice for you: Sort out in advance how to hold the flag, because here's the president of the United States getting ready to start the race at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, held yesterday in Washington.
[Clip of President Trump with the green flag upside down]
Oops. Wrong end. Oops. What is - It's a flag on a stick. How hard can it be?
[Looped clip of Trump waving the flag, loops 4x]
Once he figured it out with some help, though, he could not be stopped with the waggling in the waving. Off to the races as they say. That race yesterday was the end of the America 250th stuff. The final event planned by the federal government for the nation's 250th anniversary.
(…)
The Last Word
August 24, 2026
10:01:02 p.m. EasternMADDOW: Now it's time for The Last Word with the great Lawrence O’Donnell. Good evening. Lawrence.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Rachel, you know, I - I don't consume everything that happens in the news on the weekends. And so, I saw Donald Trump trying to wave a flag for the very first time, just - just a few minutes ago, because you showed it to me on TV.
[Maddow laughing]
I don't - Has anyone - Is there - So we're just left to guess about explanations for that or, or what.
MADDOW: I honestly felt like when I saw that, it looked to me like he was trying to diaper something. I was like, is he trying to wrap something? Swaddle? Is he swaddling something? Does he believe that this flag is supposed to be used as an implement for the accomplishing, for accomplishing some other purpose? It was like, I - I've never seen anything like it.
O'DONNELL: It seems like maybe a first time flag waver like like didn't know - It just - It's supposed to end like you're supposed to be finished at some point way waving the flag.
MADDOW: Even if you're very exuberant, it should come to an end. I did restrain myself tonight from talking about Trump saying that he was going to use the U.S. military against the bond market, that his plan there was a military option against the bond market. But I could not restrain myself from showing the flag tape.
(…)
