President Donald Trump announced a very unusual plan on Thursday for the 250th anniversary of the nation next year: a fight with mixed martial art on the White House site with a maximum of 25,000 spectators present.
“We are going to have a UFC fight, think of this, based on the White House,” he said. “We have a lot of land there, we are going to build a little – we are not, Dana is going to do it, Dana is great, unique in his kind.”
He referred to Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, AKA UFC.
The two have been close for years, with white who endorses Trump and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Last year Trump suggested that white 'Prepare a migrant competition of fighters'With the migrant champion fights against the UFC champion.
White later said that was a joke.
“But yes, he said it,” he confirmed during a UFC event.
Trump has unveiled no details of the event, so it is not clear what kind of event space or structure would be built for an audience of a maximum of 25,000, but that number is higher than the capacity of an NBAarena.
For example, Madison Square Garden in New York can contain around 20,000 spectators.
Although it would probably be the first commercial fight in the White House, it would not be the first fight of any nature: President Theodore Roosevelt Boxed for Fitness and had set up a ring in the White House for Sparrenessions with Military Assistants.
Roosevelt was once hit so hard that one eye was permanently damaged.
Trump's critics said that organizing a large UFC event for a huge audience would be under the dignity of the White House – and more than a few said it was something directly from the 2006 dystopian comedy “Idiocracy.”
They wrote on X:
