CNN hosts and commentators saw echoes of the Roman Empire in the upcoming White House UFC fight.
Kaitlan Collins and Donie O’Sullivan couldn’t hold in their laughs as they commented on the towering superstructure built on the South Lawn of the White House for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event Sunday marking President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
“Remember a few years ago, there was that viral trend when women were asking men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire, and guys were always like, yeah, pretty much every day?” O’Sullivan asked on The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Thursday. “They’re the vibes in D.C. right now,” the CNN senior correspondent added.
Earlier on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, political commentator and former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger struck a similar tone, laughing with the host as he reacted to Secretary of State Marco Rubio comparing Sunday’s event to the Apollo 11 moon landing.
“It reminds me, sadly, of kind of the end days of the Roman Empire, with the Colosseum and the gladiators and everything,” Kinzinger said.
The UFC Freedom 250 event has been promoted by Trump, 79, for months, and despite a lawsuit filed by two Virginia residents who argue that the National Park Service unlawfully approved the event and that federal landmarks should not be used for a private, for-profit sports spectacle, it is set to take place on June 14.
Although celebrity names were initially floated as possible attendees, the event—expected to draw an audience of about 4,000—will reportedly be more of a family affair, with members of Trump’s family and MAGA loyalists expected to attend the cage fights.
Construction of the 150-foot-wide arena just outside the White House, dubbed “the claw,” began in May, and court filings released Wednesday show the president’s birthday bash has ballooned into a $60 million production, requiring nearly 500 portable toilets, hundreds of trucks, up to 900 contractors, and support from at least seven federal agencies.
Still, Rubio, 55, saw it as more than just a big party for the commander-in-chief as he spoke about the event on Thursday at the State Department, standing next to UFC CEO Dana White.
“When President Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth, no one thought that was possible—and we did it,” Rubio said. “We are a nation founded on doing what no one else dared to do, and no one else aspired to do, and at some level, that’s what this whole company—what UFC has been,” he added.
Meanwhile, CNN hosts questioned how the event aligns with traditional White House decorum.
“Quite strange seeing Lincoln looking down at these steps,” O’Sullivan said, referring to the Abraham Lincoln statue in Washington, D.C., as the White House lawn is transformed into a fighting ring for the first time in history. “He could have never imagined this,” Collins added.
The event, which includes activities scheduled throughout the weekend, is likely to be disrupted only by weather, with lightning emerging as a potential risk at the outdoor venue.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
