Trump says he'll host a UFC fight on White House grounds next year
President Trump says he will host a UFC mixed martial arts fight at the White House as part of next year's festivities celebrating 250 years of American independence.
The idea came up during a Thursday night speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, one year and one day before the 250th anniversary of the 1776 ratification of the Declaration of Independence. The federal government is planning to mark the occasion with a year's worth of events — including a UFC fight, according to Mr. Trump.
"We're going to have some incredible events," the president said. "Some professional events, some amateur events. But the UFC fight is going to be a big deal, too."
Further details on the event, which is not lacking for possible names (the Rose Garden Fight Night? Oval Office Octagon?), are unclear. But the president is "dead serious" about the idea, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a pool reporter on Thursday. A UFC spokesperson also confirmed the plans to CBS News.
Mr. Trump described it as a "championship fight, full fight" with 20,000 or 25,000 spectators — a tall order for the White House grounds, though Mr. Trump said, "we have a lot of land there." He said longtime UFC CEO Dana White will organize the event.
"It's going to be EPIC!" wrote Leavitt on X.
The president's ties to the UFC go back to at least 2001, when the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City hosted the mixed martial arts enterprise. Since then, Mr. Trump has periodically attended UFC fights, including last month. The president is also close with White, who helped introduce Mr. Trump at last summer's Republican National Convention and took the stage at Mr. Trump's election night victory party.
Mr. Trump plugged a handful of other America250 events in his Thursday speech, including a "Great American State Fair," a National Mall celebration and an athletic competition called the "Patriot Games."
"I think it's going to be a wild time," Mr. Trump told reporters after returning to the D.C. area following the speech.
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Associated Press
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'I think that is highly suggestive of the longer-term agenda here,' he added. Stacey Gilbert, who resigned from the state department in 2024 over the Biden administration's failure to hold Israel accountable for blocking aid to Gaza, also believes the sites are located primarily in the south to draw Palestinians away from the north. 'This is trying to draw them all to one area, to get them away from the area that Israel doesn't want them in,' she said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz hit out at the Haaretz story in a joint statement, describing the testimonies as 'contemptible blood libels.' 'These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world,' the statement said. The IDF said it is 'operating to allow and facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid by the American 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' (GHF), and to secure the routes leading to the distribution centers, in order to allow the aid to reach the civilians rather than Hamas.' It added that it 'strongly' rejected the accusations raised in the Haaretz article. 'The IDF did not instruct the forces to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers. To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,' it said in a statement. The GHF's Interim Executive Director John Acree said in a statement provided to The Independent that 'there have been no incidents or fatalities at or in the immediate vicinity of any of our distribution sites.' 'However, IDF is tasked with providing safe passage for aid-seekers to all humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including GHF. GHF is not aware of any of these incidents but these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,' he added. Acree said the GHF was 'grateful for the support from President Trump and his administration in getting life-saving aid directly into the hands of the Palestinian people in Gaza'. The GHF's current leader, Johnnie Moore, an evangelical preacher who was a White House adviser in the first Trump administration, said in a post on X on Thursday that the group has delivered more than 46 million meals to Gazans since it began its operations in May. Israel imposed a full blockade on aid into Gaza when a ceasefire collapsed in March, pushing the population to the edge of famine. When aid is finally permitted to enter, many convoys are overwhelmed by hungry families and civilians in desperation, and armed gangs have reportedly exploited the chaos on occasion to steal the aid.
