All posts tagged "ufc"

Right-wing comedian rebukes Michelle Obama 'vile slur' as Trump praises it

Shane Gillis made it clear that he wasn't a fan of UFC fighter Josh Hokit insulting former First lady Michelle Obama while President Donald Trump had a different reaction.

The right-leaning comedian was leaving the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House Sunday night when TMZ asked him what he thought about the false and offensive remark from the 28-year-old mixed martial arts athlete.

"Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” Hokit said inside the Octogon during an interview with Joe Rogan. The crowd booed and cheered — Trump apparently smiled while he sat ringside, CNN reported.

Gillis told TMZ he didn't agree.

"I didn't love that," Gillis said.

Charlie Cotton, co-managing editor of TMZ DC, asked him in response: "How come?"

"Why do you think?" Gillis responded.

Trump reportedly praised Hokit on Air Force One on Monday, reported David Gardner for The Swamp, The Daily Beast's Substack.

"As he flew off to meet world leaders in France today for the G-7 summit, Donald Trump made a point of congratulating by name the UFC fighters who starred in his tawdry cage fight on the White House lawn on Sunday night," Gardner wrote.

"Among them was Josh Hokit, the repugnant thug who made a vile slur against former First Lady Michelle Obama in an interview with Joe Rogan after he won his bout," Gardner explained.

Trump has said in the past that Hokit was his favorite UFC fighter and that he had specifically requested for him to be on the bill for his 80th birthday bash.

"And it’s not the first time the fighter has tried to spread the baseless conspiracy theory that Obama is a man. He has said it in previous ring interviews," Gardner added.

Shane Gillis tells @hicharliecotton he didn't love Josh Hokit calling Michelle Obama a "man" pic.twitter.com/ehiFuQY3wP
— TMZ (@TMZ) June 15, 2026

'I'm literally flabbergasted': Rage as Trump deploys sacred Honor Guards at UFC event

A wave of anger erupted online this weekend after U.S. military honor guards were spotted taking part in the run-up to President Donald Trump's UFC spectacle at the Lincoln Memorial.

The backlash took off after progressive commentator LanaQuest, who posts as RosaSparks, shared video of uniformed service members flanking the memorial's steps as UFC fighters made their entrance. "Those are Honor Guards?" she wrote. "I'm literally flabbergasted. The disrespect is off the charts."

The footage was real. According to the Daily Beast, several U.S. military honor guards appeared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the UFC Freedom 250 press conference on June 12, as fighters strode past Abraham Lincoln's statue — a Getty Images photo confirmed the service members' presence at the commercial event.

Among the loudest critics was liberal commentator Brian Krassenstein, who co-hosts a political show with his brother Ed. "Trump is f------ using Honor Guards at a UFC event on the Lincoln Memorial," he wrote. "No this is NOT ok. Don't you dare call yourself a 'patriot' while supporting this c---." When one commenter asked whether Republicans were comfortable with the scene, Krassenstein replied that they "aren't ok with it" but were "too cowardly to say so."

The criticism cut deepest from those with military ties. Army veteran Skyleigh Uhrich called the display "a f------ disgrace," writing that troops of an earlier era would have faced a court-martial for far less. "So many fought and died and were maimed for this country," she wrote, expressing disbelief that ceremonial service members were being used as props at a cage-fighting promotion.

DemCast's content director also chimed in, writing, "Trump used the Armed Forces Full Honor Cordon — soldiers who escort fallen heroes and heads of state — to usher UFC fighters past Abraham Lincoln’s statue like they’re celebrities on a red carpet. I am LIVID. And everyone else should be too."

Others reached for the GOP's history of manufactured outrage, with one reply noting that Republicans "almost crucified Obama for wearing a tan suit." The Lincoln Project weighed in with a single word: "Disgraceful."

The honor guard flap is only the latest military entanglement in Trump's UFC weekend. CNN reported that troops were offered free tickets to the White House event but had to meet body-composition standards first, with one defense official bluntly summarizing the message to interested soldiers as "no fattys" and another saying Pentagon leaders wanted attendees to "look good" on camera. National Guard members, meanwhile, were stationed at the Lincoln Memorial throughout construction for the event.

The fights are set to take place Sunday on the White House South Lawn — an event timed to coincide with Trump's 80th birthday and billed as part of the nation's 250th-anniversary celebration.

'This has never happened': News host alarmed by 'highly unusual' detail of Trump UFC event

An MS NOW host sounded the alarm early Sunday over one of the stranger wrinkles of President Donald Trump's UFC takeover of the White House: the administration handing a private company control over which journalists are allowed on the grounds.

Pointing to a Washington Post report, Jonathan Capehart noted that the White House press corps will be locked out during Sunday's cage fight on the South Lawn unless the UFC itself grants them credentials.

"This is highly unusual," the host said. "This has never happened."

The Post reported that the White House — which normally handles credentialing for major events on its own grounds — is ceding that control to UFC, the mixed-martial-arts promotion run by Trump friend and ally Dana White. According to an email from White House Correspondents' Association President Weijia Jiang, only the small press pool will be guaranteed access; other reporters without UFC credentials would have to watch from screens at the nearby Ellipse or a hotel, cut off from their workspaces and the briefing room.

Journalist Sabrina Siddiqui said that, while this is indeed a break from tradition, it's also "par for the course" for a president who consistently limits media access.

She further argued that Trump remains "a master of distraction and political misdirection," staging the event against a grim backdrop: an unpopular war with Iran, rising gas and grocery prices, and a string of legal and political setbacks. She noted Secretary of State Marco Rubio had likened the UFC's significance to the U.S. putting a man on the moon, and said the hypermasculine showcase comes as polls show Trump bleeding support among the young male voters who helped power his 2024 coalition.

The White House has disputed the press-access reporting. A spokesperson called the Post's account "fake news," saying the administration had extended its existing press pool, and White has said no one was banned from the event.

Trump 'turned off' fans so badly he's burying UFC event with 'bad' Iran deal: GOP insider

A Republican strategist argued on MS NOW this weekend that President Donald Trump's planned UFC fight at the White House is such a flop that he is racing to sign a weak deal with Iran just to knock it out of the headlines.

Susan Del Percio, a GOP strategist and MS NOW political analyst, made the case on "PoliticsNation" with Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday, a day before Trump is set to host the first UFC bout on the White House lawn.

Asked whether the fight might win back supporters who have cooled on Trump's "America 250" celebration — the run-up to the country's 250th anniversary, which has been dogged by headline acts dropping out of its concert series — Del Percio said it would not.

"It's not going to bring them back into the fold if they've already been disheartened with him, for sure," she said. The trouble, she argued, is that the event was never really about the country. "What does MAGA — 'Make America Great Again' — stand for? They wanted a celebration of America, not a celebration of Donald Trump," Del Percio said. "So even some of the folks who voted for him, core, core supporters, people who supported him and consider themselves even MAGA, are turned off by all of this."

Then she tied the spectacle to Trump's foreign policy. Del Percio claimed the president agreed to sign what she called a "bad deal" with Iran on Sunday precisely to push the struggling UFC event off the top of the news. The fight, in her telling, is "a failure" Trump is scrambling to bury under a bigger story.

The timing tracks with the diplomacy. Trump and Iranian officials have signaled in recent days that a memorandum of understanding to wind down the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz could be signed within days, with Sunday floated as a possible date.

Del Percio's co-panelist, Democratic strategist Juanita Tolliver, piled on. She pointed to a recent Reuters poll she said found just 16 percent of Americans believe the White House cage fight should be happening at all — including fewer than a third of Republicans and only 11 percent of independents. Tolliver argued the stunt could drag Republicans down at the polls in November.

Both analysts flagged the same underlying detail. The fight falls on Trump's 80th birthday, which they cast as the real occasion behind all the "Freedom 250" banners.

Agent who inspired HBO's 'Entourage' is behind Trump's tough-guy image: MMA writer

The super agent who inspired HBO's "Entourage" is behind Trump's tough-guy image and UFC spectacle, according to an MMA writer.

Ari Emanuel, the brother of former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is known as the basis for Jeremy Piven's character Ari Gold. Behind the scenes, he's also been bankrolling a yearslong effort to give Trump "macho cred," Nate Wilcox, who writes about Mixed Martial Arts and UFC, said in a recent interview.

According to Wilcox, Emanuel was Trump's agent, but he's also the chairman of TKO Group Holdings, the company that owns UFC. TKO is staging the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn.

UFC came under Emanuel's ownership in 2016, when Trump was running for president. UFC CEO Dana White also began appearing at Republican conventions around that time to introduce Trump, Wilcox said.

"It's believed by some analysts that the goal in 2016 was to give Donald Trump some macho cred, that he was better known to the viewers of "The View" than he was to fans of the UFC," Wilcox explained. "He was not seen as a macho guy, and then somehow paling around with meathead Dana White gave him that cred."

While White has touted his long-standing friendship with Trump, Wilcox said that his ties with Emanuel go further back. Even though Trump claims to have been to dozens of UFC events, Wilcox, who says he's been to every UFC event, said that Trump began attending UFC events in 2019.

"Dana White is a front man, he's an excellent front man," Wilcox said. "The people making the decisions are Ari Emanuel, and the reasons Ari Emanuel wants to be in with Trump are pretty clear."

According to Wilcox, Emanuel had "an enormous role in the Ellison family acquiring Paramount and WBD," referring to Warner Bros. Discovery, and Emanuel wanted to position himself as a Democratic insider in Hollywood.

Wilcox added that Piven's character in Entourage "seems to be a fairly accurate presentation of what Ari Emanuel is like, hard-charging."

The Corrupt Relationship Between UFC, Trump, The Ellisons and Hollywood by THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali

Trump is desecrating the United States with a UFC fight on the White House lawn, but behind the scenes, it's the broligarchy that is profiting off of media mergers, shady business deals, and pain.

Read on Substack

Pilot landing at Reagan National gets cockpit full of Trump's UFC lights: report

A commercial airline pilot received a baffling response from the FAA after Trump's UFC lights blinded them while landing, MeidasTouch reported.

The pilot spoke anonymously about how powerful lights from the UFC octagon on the White House South Lawn filled the cockpit during a landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was "10 times worse than any laser illumination event," the pilot told MeidasTouch.

Landing an aircraft relies heavily on visual references, according to MeidasTouch. The pilot filed reports with the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System.

FAA personnel told the pilot to contact the White House about the safety concerns. MeidasTouch noted that the pilot's reports "raise questions" about how well the fight's organizers coordinated with aviation authorities, considering the illuminated UFC setup's proximity to the "busiest flight corridors."

The FAA recently recommended blinking red lights for Trump's triumphal arch because of how close it is to busy D.C. flight corridors. MeidasTouch also brought up heightened concern ever since an American Airlines flight fatally collided with a U.S. Army helicopter last year.

'This feels so gross': Internet rips Trump's 'little birthday party'

People online on Friday were criticizing the UFC fight to mark Donald Trump's 80th birthday — an event that has been touted as the country's 250th birthday celebration.

The mixed martial arts event this weekend on the White House's South Lawn will be a historic first, and more than 100,000 people are expected to attend, CNN reported.

Trump has admitted that he will skip signing the Iran peace deal if it happens during his scheduled event — and that he plans to send Vice President JD Vance and Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff instead.

Social media users commented on the event as U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels practiced flying over the White House on Friday.

"Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent on Trump’s birthday party," Ron Filipkowski, MeidasTouch editor and attorney, wrote on X.

"The crowd at the White House UFC fight will be one of the most diverse ever. There will be convicted felons, rapists, pedophiles, sex traffickers, domestic abusers and insurrectionists," Covie, a political commentator with more than 177,000 followers, wrote on X.

"So...Donald Trump has summoned a flyover for his little birthday party, too. And, it's HIS birthday party. Not for the UFC. Not America. For Trump," writer and editor of Protect Democracy, Amanda Carpenter, wrote on X.

Carpenter also called out the Trump administration in a separate X post.

"Don't let anyone pretend the UFC cage match debacle on the WH lawn is about anything but a gaudy, lavish, taxpayer-funded birthday party for Trump. Let's talk about why this feels so gross, because it's about a lot more than Trump turning 80. What should be a celebration of America 250 is really a forced celebration for Trump," Carpenter said.

"Trump is calling his UFC cage match an 'event.' It’s actually a scheme: fed. property, fed. staff, & a policymaking process handed over to boost a private business," Norm Eisen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and founder of Democracy Defenders Action, wrote on X.

"Trump corruption of the day: his UFC cage fight at the White House," Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) wrote in a post on X, sharing a video describing his thoughts about the event and calling out Trump for hosting a MAGA fundraiser the day before the fight and his ties to the parent company of UFC as an investor.

"So what is the corruption? It's when a person who holds a high office — no one higher than the president — uses that office to enrich himself, to enrich his family. And that's at your expense," Welch said in the video.

So...Donald Trump has summoned a flyover for his little birthday party, too. And, it's HIS birthday party. Not for the UFC. Not America. For Trump. https://t.co/EPvrSfO9wa
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) June 12, 2026

Military vet files federal lawsuit to stop 'deeply corrupt' White House UFC plan

A Virginia political organizer and a military veteran filed a federal lawsuit Sunday seeking a court order to halt UFC Freedom 250, the upcoming mixed martial arts event planned for the White House South Lawn and Lincoln Memorial on June 14 — a date that is simultaneously the 250th anniversary of American independence and Donald Trump's 80th birthday.

The suit, reported by CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane, calls the arrangement a corrupt transfer of public resources to a private business ally. "This plan is deeply corrupt," the complaint states. "The President is giving White and his company what none have enjoyed before: unfettered access to the White House and Lincoln Memorial to stage a private, for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access."

Dana White, the UFC's chief executive and a close Trump friend and ally, has publicly framed the event as a celebration of America's semiquincentennial. But the lawsuit notes that White has also admitted the event "was Trump's idea," and argues that UFC Freedom 250 is in reality "a celebration of the UFC's brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump's birth" — and therefore does not qualify for the special permits that allow use of national monumental grounds.

Federal law tightly restricts private use of the South Lawn and Lincoln Memorial, both of which are national parklands administered by the National Park Service. Under the NPS's standard permitting regime, no special events of any kind, including sporting events, may be held on the South Lawn.

The physical footprint of the event is itself a subject of the lawsuit. The UFC has erected a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure on the South Lawn it calls "the Claw," which the suit says is "destroying much of the South Lawn in the process." Any structure on national monumental grounds, the complaint argues, must be expressly authorized by Congress and undergo a full National Environmental Policy Act review.

The commercial stakes are not being hidden. One UFC executive recently called the event "the greatest earned-marketing tool of all time." VIP packages are being sold for between $1 million and $1.5 million per head. Sponsors including Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com are among those with a financial interest in the event.

Trump has not indicated any intention to scale it back. In a TikTok video, he suggested the Claw might "never" be taken down, comparing it to the Eiffel Tower. "It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the World's Fair," Trump said of the Paris landmark, "and then they said, you know, we sort of like it."

NEW: Virginia political organizer and a military vet file federal suit, seeking court order to HALT the UFC fight at White House:

"This plan is deeply corrupt.. President is giving (Dana) White & his company what none have enjoyed before: unfettered access to the White House..… pic.twitter.com/RHBI6ZdYZQ
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) June 7, 2026

Trump Pentagon begging troops to watch his White House UFC fight: report

The Pentagon is reportedly trying to fill seats at the upcoming White House UFC fight by asking troops to show up, according to reporting by the Washington Post.

The UFC fight on the South Lawn is supposed to be a centerpiece of Trump's upcoming 80th birthday-slash-Flag Day celebration on June 14. MAGA-friendly podcaster and former UFC commentator Joe Rogan notably bashed the idea because of D.C.'s summer heat and bugs.

Now, the Pentagon wants to recruit "hundreds of troops" to attend the embattled event as spectators, but it won't even cover the costs of travel, according to WaPo.

Based on internal memos and insider sources, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is "requiring those who attend to pay for their travel and meet height and weight requirements" and has already "solicited volunteers across the services."

Military officials are looking for junior enlisted personnel and junior officers, in particular, according to internal memos acquired by WaPo, which noted, "junior troops make up the military's lowest pay grades."

A social media page also called on troops to take part, telling them, "tickets must be distributed to genuine UFC fans, not solely to high-ranking DVs," or distinguished visitors.

Trump has been investing in UFC as he promotes White House event: report

President Donald Trump has snapped up tens of thousands of dollars in stocks in the parent company of a White House event he's heavily promoting.

The president purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 of stock in TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship event he's holding next month on the South Lawn to celebrate his 80th birthday, reported HuffPost.

“We’re going to have 4,000 seats right in front of the front door of the White House," Trump said when he announced the bout last summer. "The hardest ticket I’ve ever had, too. This will be the greatest show on Earth.”

Trump has been promoting the event ever since, hosting UFC fighters May 6 at the Oval Office, and construction began earlier this week on support structures for the June 14 fights.

“Grifting has always been an issue in Donald Trump’s presidency, but now the mask is off,” said Jordan Libowitz, of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Using the White House to promote a company whose stock you bought while promoting it is one of the worst conflicts of interest you could imagine. The agenda of this administration seems to start and stop with how to make Donald Trump richer.”

The president has actively bought and sold million of dollars in stock in companies he promotes or regulates as head of the executive branch, but Vice President JD Vance and White House officials have insisted he does not personally decide on his investments.