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Almost a year ago, at a rally in Des Moines, President Trump made an announcement to his supporters.
“We’re going to have a UFC fight – think of this – on the grounds of the White House,” he said.
The crowd of supporters didn’t cheer, exactly – rather, a murmur ran through the crowd. They seemed, if anything, surprised.
And now, he’s following through, allowing the UFC to erect an arena on the South Lawn. Seven cage fights will be held on the White House grounds in honor of the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary – a day that also happens to be the president’s 80th birthday.
Beyond that, he’s undertaken a roster of other side projects not – strictly speaking – traditionally central to a war time president’s daily decision-making. Tied to the anniversary, he’s going to host a rally on the national mall and has an IndyCar race planned on the streets of D.C.
And then there are the building projects, which the president can’t help bringing up, even at unrelated official events. Before signing a bill funding immigration enforcement last week, he described at length his work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. At an announcement about coal power, he brought up a pedestrian bridge to connect the Lincoln Memorial and the Potomac River.
And at a recent agricultural roundtable in Wisconsin, he showed the farmers seated on either side of him printouts of photos of a Washington, D.C., fountain.
“We had 22 fountains that didn’t work,” he told the crowd. “All of the fountains, not one fountain in Washington worked. Out of the 22 fountains, they’re all looking beautiful.”
Beyond all that, he has knocked down the White House East Wing to build a ballroom and an underground military complex. And he’s planning a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
The White House has defended many of these actions as having precedent, pointing to past presidents’ building projects. And that’s fair, but only to an extent, says Princeton professor of history Julian Zelizer.
“You can find bits and pieces of what President Trump has done that are done very differently and with different purposes,” he said.
Trump has referenced previous fights at the White House – President Theodore Roosevelt himself participated in some. And Zelizer points to President Truman massively renovating the White House, which at the time, was literally falling apart.
War-time priorities
All of Trump’s expanded portfolio passion projects have happened as the US has been at war with Iran, inflation has passed 4% , and his approval has sunk. Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Trump once vowed to end, rages on. He has mostly stopped talking about a healthcare overhaul. And midterms are approaching.
All of which casts the UFC fights for America’s 250th birthday in a different light, says Zelizer.
“In addition to just how big it is and how much space it’s literally and symbolically taking in his presidency, at a moment the nation’s in the middle of a war, it also raises all these conflict of interest questions, which are also different than having a boxing match in the White House,” he said.
A watchdog group, the Public Integrity Project, has filed a lawsuit attempting to halt the event. The lawsuit calls the planned fights “deeply corrupt,” noting the money that UFC, headed by Trump ally Dana White, stands to make off the event. It also pointed out that a recent financial disclosure from Trump shows he owns up to $50,000 dollars of stock in the company that owns UFC.
In a subsequent filing, the government responded with multiple counterarguments. It said the plaintiffs don’t have standing, the lawsuit was filed too late, that it would be too disruptive to halt an event a year in the making, and that other presidents have held public events on the South Lawn.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle insisted to NPR there are no conflicts of interest, and added that Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. However, it’s not a blind trust, in which the owner’s assets are under the control of an independent manager.
The government’s filing also states that “well over $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been expended” on UFC Freedom 250. The White House says UFC is footing the bill for the entire event.
However, the filing also says seven government agencies and components have been involved in coordinating this event.
“There are no taxpayer dollars being used outside of what would be applied towards employees normal duties and responsibilities,” said a White House spokesperson in a statement to NPR.
America 250
A major milestone like the nation’s 250th birthday can be expected to involve big celebrations featuring the president.
In 1976, President Ford participated in a series of bicentennial events at historic sites up and down the East coast, including a sweeping speech at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia.
It’s a stark contrast to ultimate fighting.
“The UFC has nothing to do with American history. So it’s not about Independence Hall, it’s not about the founders,” said Zelizer. “This reflects the preferences and the friendships and at some level the perceived electoral interests, meaning the popularity of UFC with young male voters, rather than celebrating the nation itself.”
Only 16%of U.S. adults believe it’s appropriate to hold mixed martial arts fighting matches on the White House lawn, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Even among Republicans, the idea isn’t popular – 31% say it’s appropriate, while 22% disapprove (36%said “neither”).
Both President Trump and UFC CEO Dana White – who introduced Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention — have insisted the mixed martial arts fights on the White House lawn are purely about America’s birthday, not Trump’s birthday. In a recent interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, however, White added that UFC fights do reflect Trump’s personality.
“Trump is one of the toughest, most resilient human beings that I’ve ever met in my life,” he said. “The will to win, the will to overcome – you know, he has every ounce of that plus some, even at 80 years old.”
Second-term presidents think about their legacies, and there is a sense that Trump is thinking about his, with his events and building projects.
In the case of Sunday’s fights, he will be doing so with an organization he has a long history with. And Trump knows the sport — in 2023, he did an extended interview on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, where he riffed on what happens as fighters age.
“As you get older, it’s not that you can’t do it. I think you’re physically the same. Maybe in some ways you’re stronger and better, but you don’t have that same motivation to do it,” he told host and ex-fighter Matt Serra. “You want the success, but you don’t want to work quite as hard.”
Trump supporters have long said they see him as a fighter. And on the cusp of his 80th birthday, after multiple assassination attempts, and as he navigates the end of his presidency, he may also be showing the world what does and doesn’t motivate him.
