Trump Throws UFC Cage Fight on White House Lawn for His Own Birthday

What Actually Happened Here

Let's be clear about the mechanics of this, because the facts alone deserve a moment of silence. The Trump administration and the Ultimate Fighting Championship erected a sprawling viewing area steps from the White House on the National Mall. Seven mixed martial arts fights took place on the South Lawn. Fighters walked through the Oval Office to get there. The event was marketed, with a straight face, as a celebration of America's "fighting spirit" ahead of the country's 250th anniversary.

It is also, not coincidentally, Trump's 80th birthday. The Guardian reports thousands of fight fans streamed into the public viewing area while hundreds of law enforcement officials, including the National Guard, Secret Service, Metropolitan Police, and Park Police, patrolled on foot, horseback, motorcycles, and from tanks and armored vehicles. Tanks. On Constitution Avenue. For a birthday party UFC fight.

The Corruption Part, Which Is Pretty Hard to Ignore

Here is the thing that should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country: Trump holds significant stock in TKO, the UFC's parent company. He is the host of this event. He is also the sitting president of the United States, using federal park land as the venue. There is no universe in which this arrangement does not constitute a textbook conflict of interest.

Susan Douglas, an organizer with Third Act Virginia and one of two plaintiffs in an emergency federal lawsuit that tried to block the event, put it plainly to The Guardian. "This reeks of corruption," she said. "Way too much corruption." Douglas added: "Let's face it. It's for Trump's birthday and has nothing to do with the founding of our country." A federal judge rejected the lawsuit two days before the event. So the cage went up, the fighters walked through the Oval Office, and the president watched from ringside while his stock portfolio had a very nice evening.

The Protesters Showed Up With a Cage of Their Own

Dozens of demonstrators gathered across from the Ellipse entrance as fight fans streamed past them into the grounds. The afternoon rally, organized under the banner "The Real Fight Is for Democracy," was one of several protests that played out across Washington and around the country. Protesters held signs, chanted "Whose house? Our house!" and "Whose lawn? Our lawn!" UFC fans replied with "USA! USA! UFC! UFC!" which pretty much tells you everything about where we are as a civilization.

The protesters also built a giant puppet cage filled with oversized figures of Trump and his cabinet members. Marco Smith, the Third Act Virginia member who led the construction, told The Guardian exactly what it was meant to represent. "We made the cage to show them behind bars where they belong," he said. "Not in the UFC cage, but in a jail cage." Points for commitment to the bit.

Jason Simpson traveled from Connecticut specifically to join the protest. He banged a gong at UFC fans and told The Guardian he'd already been pepper-sprayed by police and beaten with a baton at demonstrations outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark over the previous weeks. He came anyway. "This is a fascist, money-grabbing opportunity," he said. "We need to keep fighting back."

The Other Protest, a Few Blocks Away

About 100 people gathered at the Wilson Building on Pennsylvania Avenue under a different banner: "They Fight, We Feed." Code Pink, the DC Local to Global Solidarity Network, the Federal Unionist Network, and DC Ward 2 Mutual Aid organized a community meal and programming while the cage fights went on nearby. The contrast was, let's say, intentional.

Olivia DiNucci, an anti-militarism organizer with Code Pink, told The Guardian this was bigger than a birthday party or a corruption scheme. "We are calling out how this is already a very militarized city, and now we have people fighting each other on the South Lawn and trying to elicit fear and violence, like they do all over the world," she said. She connected the spectacle directly to the numbers: the United States is about to sign a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget, the highest in history, alongside the highest Department of Homeland Security budget ever, and the deepest cuts to the social safety net in recent memory. "Whenever people say, 'How do we pay for this?' I tell them that poverty is violence in this country," DiNucci said. Hard to argue with the math.

The $1.5 Million Seats and What They Tell You

VIP guests paid up to $1.5 million for ringside access at this event. Read that number again. One and a half million dollars to sit near a 92-foot steel cage on the lawn of the White House while the president, who owns stock in the company running the event, watches from nearby. This is the "fighting spirit" of America's 250th anniversary, apparently.

Fighters emerged from the Oval Office. The Oval Office. The room where presidents have received world leaders, made decisions that altered the course of history, and sat alone at night staring at intelligence reports about nuclear arsenals. On Sunday, mixed martial arts fighters walked through it to get to the cage. "The Claw" is not the least bit stately, Douglas told The Guardian. "It doesn't fit with the beautiful architecture of our city. The people's house should not be used for a money-making sports event. Full stop."