President Donald Trump continues to transform the White House into a monument to his own tastes—and he says he wants the changes to outlast his presidency.
The UFC arena Trump is constructing on the White House South Lawn for the June 14 fight spectacle celebrating both America’s 250th birthday and his own 80th birthday appears ready for action.
Photos taken on Wednesday from the White House’s historic Rose Garden, which Trump paved over last year, show the massive open-air structure towering over the White House like a rollercoaster hovering above a theme park seating area.
Yellow pillow chairs dot the patio below the hulking structure, which is wrapped in patriotic red, white, and blue graphics and spans a raised stage and seating area designed to hold 5,000 spectators.
Other photos show that the Las Vegas-style venue rises into the line of sight of people on the south side of the White House.
Trump on Tuesday compared the arena to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and floated the idea of making it a permanent addition to the White House grounds.
“MAYBE WE’LL NEVER EVER TAKE IT DOWN,” the 79-year-old president captioned a TikTok video, in which he said the Eiffel Tower was initially erected in 1889 as a temporary structure for the Exposition Universelle.
“Many don’t know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower—1889 it was built. It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the World’s Fair,” Trump said. “And then they said, we sort of like it, let’s leave it up a little bit longer. And then they said let’s leave it up longer and longer and longer. Well, they never took it down.”
The president claimed that the arena is “quite attractive to a lot of people,” before concluding, “Maybe we’ll never, ever take it down.”
The Pentagon is trying to recruit hundreds of U.S. troops to attend the president’s birthday bash, The Washington Post reported last week. A memo viewed by the Post laid out that those soldiers are required to wear a uniform and meet a “waist-height” ratio.
Trump’s UFC event has been criticized as another example of misplaced priorities, as Americans struggle with rising prices amid the president’s war with Iran.
Even UFC commentator and podcast host Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump in 2024, has dismissed the event as “kind of a gimmick” and “odd.”
If the UFC arena stays up after the event, it would add to a growing list of alterations Trump has made to the White House since returning to office last year, many of which are being challenged in court.
Before crews even began working on the UFC arena, the White House grounds already looked like a construction zone eyesore due to Trump’s $400 million ballroom, which is being built on the footprint where the East Wing once stood.
Elsewhere, he has revamped the West Wing Colonnade, adding a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the walkway, and redecorated the Oval Office to feature significantly more gold.
The Lincoln Bathroom has also been renovated in Trump’s preferred style, and is now made entirely of marble, which he described as “very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!”
Trump has also added his name to the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Peace, hung up banners featuring his face at the Department of Justice and other government buildings, and has plans to build a 250-foot Triumphal Arch near Arlington National Cemetery.
