After paving over the Rose Garden to create a patio and demolishing the East Wing to make way for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, President Donald Trump continues to reshape the White House grounds and reinvent how they are used.
On July 2 of this year, the president confirmed plans to host a UFC mixed martial arts event on the White House grounds as part of his yearlong celebration for the United States’ 250th birthday. (The June 14 event also happens to fall on his own birthday.)
This week, Trump said the event, dubbed UFC Freedom 250, would see a 4,500-seat “arena” built on the South Lawn of the White House.
“Right there,” the president said pointing to the South Lawn while discussing the event, “they’re going to start building a 4,500 seat arena.”
But that’s not all, according to the president.
“And then in the back at the Ellipse, we’re going to have 100,000, maybe 50 [50,000] to 100,000 people, I guess,” he continued. “They’re building tremendous stages, and we’re going to have massive screens of the fight.”
For the uninitiated, The Ellipse is a 52-acre public park beyond the South Lawn and outside the White House fence.
UFC boss Dana White talked up the event on Pat McAfee’s ESPN show this morning. Responding to criticism of the event, White maintained it is not being put on for people of one political leaning or another.
“It has nothing to do with politics. We just happen to be on the White House lawn and the President of the United States will be there,” he told McAfee.
White can’t afford to turn half the country away.
Last year, Paramount inked a major seven-year media rights agreement worth an average $1.1 billion annually with TKO Group to become the exclusive home of all UFC events in the U.S. All of White’s fights — including the White House card — will now air free of additional charge to Paramount+ U.S. subscribers.
Of the structure and sightlines for the event, White said, “All I want to see when I’m watching these fights is the White House in the background. So they found this thing, it’s being built over in Europe. It’s going to be shipped to Philadelphia and then it’s going to be trucked from Philly to Washington D.C. and we’ll start to build it on the south lawn of the White House.”
The “arena” promised by Trump is not likely a permanent structure, if only because it would ruin the president’s view of the South Lawn, the Ellipse and the Washington Monument.
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