9 hours Ago
Addressing an “America 250” kickoff event held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on the day before the Fourth of July, Trump described the gathering as a spectacle that will range from customized programming at “historic sites” all over the country to a “first-time-ever” UFC event at the White House.
“This is what they do– they line up on your doorstep of the White House,” Trump told the crowd. The announcement has been confirmed by White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt who said the president is “dead serious” about the plan.
There are conversations about the event between UFC and the White House, a UFC official said, albeit nothing is official as of now. Trump has long been closely associated with UFC and its CEO Dana White, dating to 2001 when he came to the aid of the then-struggling fight league by providing the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City as a venue.
UFC, Patriot Games Part of Larger National Celebration
Trump’s long connection with the UFC has come more into the open in recent years. He also visited a U.F.C. event in Miami in April, with a possible claim to having been the first sitting president to hit the fighter walkout. He was also spotted at a fight last month in Newark, New Jersey. Trump appeared at a UFC event in New York City after his election victory in November to applause and a video tribute.
And those appearances have cemented Trump’s tie to UFC’s fanbase — many of whom are easy for him to connect with, at least rhetorically, on manliness, and virility, and ass-kicking, particularly on social media platforms that overwhelmingly skew male, and that exalt fitness and traditional ways of being.
At the event in Iowa, Trump used the occasion to launch an athletic competition called the “Patriot Games” for high school students. The televised event will be hosted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. It will be part of a broader array of sporting and cultural events promoted by the government to commemorate the nation’s founding.
And as Trump gears up for America’s 250th year, the UFC battle on the grounds of the White House is set to be a marquee event, showcasing the president’s unorthodox style of festiveness and patriotism.
