President Donald Trump is facing a backlash for turning the White House and Washington, D.C., into a circus for his UFC birthday spectacle.
The White House and its surroundings were filled with eyebrow-raising events for the America 250 celebrations over the weekend. At the top of the bill is a UFC fight on Sunday night, also Trump’s 80th birthday.
The hijinks got started Saturday morning with the weigh-ins of the fighters, who promoters warn will get hurt and bloodied in Sunday’s seven wild spectacles. Heavyweight Josh Hokit walked unsteadily and appeared to drool, dribble, or vomit at the weigh-in. “So what? Maybe I was drinking last night,” the bare-chested fighter told spectators. “Who wouldn’t be? I have a giant Black man that wants to knock me out.”
Posting footage of the moment, Trump critic Ed Krassenstein wrote, “Donald Trump has made a disgrace of America.”
The bizarre moments continued as adrenaline junkies from The Nitro Circus performed motorbike jumps on the South Lawn of the White House.
“Disgraceful,” wrote the Lincoln Project in response.
“So Zelensky desecrated the White House by not wearing a suit but this is ok,” said another.
Others criticized the use of Marines at the event “for this dumb s--t.”
In another moment, a Dodge RAM race car performed a burnout on The Ellipse ahead of the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
Additionally, CNN’s Brian Todd reported Sunday that attendees at the Ellipse could try all sorts of wacky games.
“This is a kind of a punching contest,” he noted at one stall. “There’s a punching bag there where you can measure the force and the speed of your punches.”
He then took viewers to a “simulated UFC walkout where you can get yourself videotaped kind of doing a UFC strut or whatever you want to do as you walk out for a simulated UFC fight.” Todd noted, however, they looked “fun.”
A recurring theme among critics is that the undignified spectacle is not worthy of its storied venue.
“What’s happening at the White House is embarrassing as hell,” Democratic Vice Chair Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta said Saturday. “Sadly I don’t need to be specific.”
Conservative Trump critic Bill Kristol noted that the UFC spectacle “captures something about this moment in our history. After all, it’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect. In other words, it’s Donald Trump.”
Trump had incensed onlookers online after Honor Guards were spotted Friday as UFC fighters walked past Abraham Lincoln’s statue at the Lincoln Memorial.
American veteran John Jackson noted on X, “I’ll never forgive people who voted for Trump. This is on them. The Lincoln Memorial is hallowed ground. Where our greatest president, who gave his life to end slavery, is commentated. Where the Gettysburg Address is written. We live as graffiti now.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump’s UFC circus has already hit a snag, with the bright lights on the White House lawn being blamed for partially blinding flight crews approaching a major U.S. airport.
A pilot told Meidas Touch that the glare from the lights was “10 times worse than any laser illumination event” they had seen before.
The criticism of Trump has even come from within. Speaking on his podcast Friday, Joe Rogan criticized Trump for his choice of venue.
“I don’t like it because I think they should be fighting indoors, always. I think world championship fights should be fought in a controlled environment,” he said on The Joe Rogan Experience.
