US President Donald Trump will host a blood-soaked UFC cage match on the lawn of the White House for the US’s 80th birthday.
A massive arena called “The Claw” has been erected on the iconic South Lawn for Sunday’s competition, which will feature 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters.
Critics have slammed the unprecedented $60 million “UFC Freedom 250” event as tone-deaf, coming at a time when Trump’s war in Iran has raised the cost of living for average Americans.
Trump thinks it’s a terrific way to kick off the 250th anniversary of American independence — not to mention his own birthday — and that the UFC is covering all of the expenses.
But the wealthy Republican is also enjoying the macho aspect of the event, which will include bare-knuckle combatants battling it out in a mesh-framed cage known as the “Octagon.”
“They’re the roughest people you’ll ever meet,” Trump told the New York Post on Thursday. “If you haven’t seen it much, you’re not going to believe it.”
Trump has tight relationships with the violent sport’s leaders and has attended multiple past fights, endearing himself to its young male fanbase, which was also critical to his political ascension.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also praised the event, signing a collaboration agreement with UFC president Dana White to promote mixed martial arts globally.
“That’s what Sunday is about; it’s a gift to the American people,” Rubio said on Thursday, adding that it would be watched by “probably a billion people all over the world.”
It will undoubtedly be unlike any previous celebration in the White House’s 200-year existence.
The contest will be watched by approximately 4,000 individuals inside the arena, with Dana White estimating that more than half will be US military personnel. Another 125,000 people are scheduled to watch it on a huge screen in the Ellipse, a grassy space directly outside the White House.
During a preview on Thursday, media were permitted to see the arena, which weighs 600 tons (544 metric tons), is 154 feet (47 meters) broad, and is 92 feet tall—taller than the White House itself.
“The Claw” currently stands on the same historic lawn where President Bill Clinton attended the signing of the Oslo peace accords in 1993 and Richard Nixon said his final farewell.
But Trump, a wealthy real estate magnate and reality TV celebrity before his unlikely political climb, has always been a different kind of president.
“Donald Trump has built a public persona throughout his life by being the Donald Trump show,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.
“It’s loud, it’s glitzy, it’s glossy—that’s what this is.”
Loge stated that the macho display on the White House lawn during a war and economic turmoil reflected a governing style that appealed to Trump’s supporters.
“It’s gladiators,” he said. “In a time of chaos in the US, it is to say that the US is strength, it is force, and it is in control. There are fireworks—and two guys beating each other up.”
In the run-up to the event, the Trump administration has faced a lawsuit aiming to prevent it from taking place, alleging that it was an unlawful use of public land to benefit the president’s allies.
The White House denied the charges in a court filing.
It also rebuffed a notion by Donald J. Trump that the arena could be kept up in the same way that France kept the Eiffel Tower after the 1889 World Fair.
“The Claw will be disassembled immediately after the event concludes,” Joshua Fisher, director for White House Management and Administration, said in the papers.
