By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jacob Bogage
WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump hosted mixed martial arts fights on the White House lawn on Sunday, an unprecedented spectacle highlighting his willingness to blend the pageantry of his office with his brutal brand of politics and his family’s business interests.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s seven bouts are the first professional sporting event hosted at the White House in its history. It is part of the Trump administration’s celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary, and is a centerpiece in the president’s summer of sport.
The event, held on Trump’s 80th birthday, began hours after Trump and Iranian officials announced they have a peace agreement to end the four-month-old war between their countries, which has pushed consumer prices to a three-year high, unnerving voters. It also coincides with his efforts to counter perceptions that he is becoming a lame-duck president.
Within minutes of strolling to his seat ringside - while the Marine Corps band blasted a live rendition of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” - Trump was posting details about the Iran deal on social media, and speaking by phone with journalists.
Inside the eight-sided, chain-link cage, sponsorships from major U.S. corporations and some of Trump’s political allies - including video-streaming platform Rumble, shipping tech firm EasyPost and conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA - lined the canvas.
Some of the victorious fighters greeted Trump after their bouts. American fighter Bo Nickal followed his knockout victory by climbing over the cage fence to shake Trump’s hand. The president clasped the pugilist’s red gloves and slapped his sweaty shoulder in congratulations.
“This is unbelievable,” Nickal said afterward, gesturing toward Trump in a post-match interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, UFC’s longtime TV commentator. “It takes such a special person to be able to have the balls to do something like this.”
Another victorious fighter, heavyweight Josh Hokit, gave Trump an item that he hung around the president’s neck before delivering an expletive-ridden speech that included praise for Trump and concluded with a misogynistic jab at former first lady Michelle Obama.
The temporary venue nicknamed “The Claw,” 20 rows deep on all sides and featuring supports rising higher than the White House roof, provided an intimate setting for Sunday’s bouts compared to the arenas normally used by UFC.
Fighters warmed up in a space at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door and walked out to their fights from within the White House itself. Noise from the sound system caromed off the facade of the White House’s Truman Balcony, shaking the executive mansion’s walls.
PUNCHING AND ECONOMIC POWER
Seventeen months into his second term in office, Trump has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of the presidency to command attention and project strength.
Trump in March reported the purchase of up to $50,000 in shares of TKO Group Holdings, UFC’s publicly traded parent company. The fighting circuit said it would spend $60 million to bear the cost of the event, but neither the company nor the White House have provided details of the financial arrangements.
“The vast majority of Americans are not celebrating 250 years of America by watching a UFC fight,” said Dan Rayburn, an independent streaming analyst. “This is really a private event.”
Closed captioning of the event, streamed on Paramount+, was sponsored by Trump Coin, the gold and silver tokens bearing the president’s profile sold by Trump family. World Liberty Financial, a crypto currency firm backed by two of the president’s sons and the son of his chief diplomatic negotiator, contributed to the pool of bonus money doled out to fighters who impress UFC officials.
Tickets were not sold publicly. The White House recruited military personnel to fill some of the 4,000 seats in the arena. Other tickets were controlled by the Trump administration. UFC offered others to guests paying more than $1 million, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The White House has rejected allegations of a conflict of interest and said the Trump family manages the president’s business affairs.
FEW AMERICANS APPROVE OF WHITE HOUSE BOUTS
Trump asserted broad executive authority to stage a private company’s event on federal grounds, a break with norms that drew a legal challenge and raised concerns about the cost of the event and potential ethical conflicts.
In a Reuters/Ipsos online poll of 4,531 U.S. adults conducted June 3-8, just 16% said it was appropriate for Trump to hold the event. A judge declined on Friday to block the event in a legal challenge by plaintiffs who had argued that his administration exceeded its authority in staging it.
Trump, whose occasional involvement with mixed martial arts goes back decades, is close with UFC Chief Executive Dana White and the Ellison family, whose Paramount has a $7.7 billion deal to air UFC fights until 2033.
Trump has made sports a recurring feature of his presidency, weighing in on issues including transgender athletes and pay for college football players, and has attended a range of major sporting events, including several UFC shows.
France delayed the Group of Seven summit, which starts on Monday, to accommodate Trump’s attendance at Sunday’s UFC event.
About a fifth of Americans call themselves MMA fans. According to the findings of the Reuters/Ipsos poll, fight fans do not have a particularly high opinion overall of Trump’s job performance.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jacob Bogage in Washington; Additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Will Dunham, Sergio Non and Stephen Coates)
