(AFP) – It has played host to countless world leaders and moments in history. Now US President Donald Trump has built a huge cage-fighting arena on the White House’s South Lawn. Cranes lifted giant metal arches into place Tuesday for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event on Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14, AFP reporters saw.
“We’re having a big fight. It’s never going to happen again, never happened before,” Trump said at an Oval Office event earlier this month, surrounded by four of the fighters taking part. Trump also showed off a picture of the so-called Octagon — the eight-sided UFC ring bounded by a chain-link fence — surrounded by seats against the backdrop of the White House. The billionaire Republican says 4,500 people will be able to watch on the lawn itself, with up to 100,000 people able to watch free on screens just outside the White House grounds.
Trump himself is a UFC fan who has attended a series of fights, endearing himself to its core fanbase of young men — a key demographic in the 2024 US election. The event has been dubbed “UFC Freedom 250,” in reference to the United States’ 250th anniversary celebrations this summer. It takes place on the US holiday of Flag Day — which also happens to Trump’s birthday. Fighters Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje will top the bill of six fights in a lightweight championship clash, the UFC announced in March.
But the event has raised eyebrows, both for the cost and for its location on the historic White House lawn. UFC’s parent company said in February the fight will cost at least $60 million to stage, but that it hoped to recoup around half that in corporate sponsorships and other sources. The White House said that the UFC is paying the entire cost. “No taxpayer money is being used,” a White House official told AFP.
Yet the extravagant event comes at a time when the United States is caught up in the war with Iran, which has caused oil prices and the cost of living for Americans to soar. Podcaster Joe Rogan, who hosted Trump on his show before the 2024 election, said in March that it would be “weird” to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a war. UFC boss Dana White denied the event was political, in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday, and defended the expenditure. “You can make anything political if you want to,” said White. “This is basically me spending a shit-load of money to celebrate the 250th birthday of America, with America and the rest of the world.”
The UFC stage also represents another dramatic, albeit temporary, change to the White House by Trump, who has paved over the grass of the famed Rose Garden and demolished the entire East Wing to build a huge $400 million ballroom. In previous years the South Lawn has seen some of the most notable moments in US presidential history. Richard Nixon left the White House via the South Lawn after announcing his resignation in 1974 in the culmination of the Watergate scandal, boarding a military helicopter and giving his trademark double victory sign. It was on the South Lawn, too, where Bill Clinton hosted the 1993 Oslo Accord handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
Former reality star Trump has however shown no qualms about making his own kind of history by staging a cage-fight there. His long association with the UFC has made the president a regular fixture at its events, where he is greeted like a rock star. Security is expected to be tight for the event, which will be held in the open air, following a series of recent incidents involving Trump. A gunman was killed by the Secret Service on Saturday after opening fire near the White House, while there was an alleged assassination attempt against Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner at a Washington hotel in April.
– Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
