{"id":500395,"date":"2026-06-15T07:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T07:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500395\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T07:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T07:51:11","slug":"welcome-to-donald-trumps-80th-birthday-ufc-cage-fight-the-most-american-thing-ive-ever-seen-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500395\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Donald Trump\u2019s 80th birthday UFC cage fight: \u2018The most American thing I\u2019ve ever seen\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lightning did not strike. The June night \u2013 the 14th, 2026, for the record, marking 80 years in the life of Donald J Trump<\/a> \u2013 brewed with the hot, treacly intimations of a storm but the birthday boy\u2019s luck held, as it always holds, so even though the sky turned purple, the guests sitting on the South Lawn of the White House<\/a> remained dry as they sat in their finery to watch the premier cage-fighters in the game go at it on the front lawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman cockfighting\u201d was the damning dismissal handed to UFC<\/a> by the late John McCain, the Republican who ran against Barack Obama in 2008. It was a condemnation that Dana White, who guided the mixed-martial-arts cult from notoriety to the mainstream, has never forgotten. This night marked a full circle moment for White, whose long friendship with Trump culminated in this strange circus: a seven-card fight under the banner of UFC Freedom 250 in front of America\u2019s most sacred building.<\/p>\n

As ever with Trump, the event has caused a deep and profound division among Americans. To many millions, the mere thought of what is a highly commercial and highly violent combat sport on the front lawn of the White House was nothing short of a grotesquerie. On Saturday, the UFC had temporarily appropriated the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to conduct a press conference, filled with testosterone grunts and threats, while the marble version of Honest Abe sat behind them. The entire weekend was a breathtakingly strange and typically Trumpian combination of heavy patriotic symbolism, commercialism and a faint sense of walking through someone else\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s surreal,\u201d proclaimed Joe Rogan, the influential podcaster and long-time UFC advocate, on the official broadcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so amazing. The energy is in the air. We\u2019re outside. We thought it might be called for rain but we\u2019re good. The whole thing is nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FireworksFireworks go off ahead of the final bout during the UFC Freedom 250 mixed martial arts event on the South Lawn of the White House. Photograph: Saul Loeb\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

It was a bit, not least because Trump had dashed off yet another social media post proclaiming that \u201cThe Deal with the Islamic Republic is now complete\u201d \u2013 a birthday present to the world in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to all!\u201d he encouraged before claiming to have authorised the \u201ctoll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShips of the world, start your engines!\u201d he wrote, invoking the old UFC chant.<\/p>\n

Whatever about cake and bubbles, the guests were treated to a parade of extremely ripped cage fighters who emerged from the Truman balcony; walked through the strobe lights and red, white and blue lights of that transformed South Lawn; strip down to their gladiator shorts; and go mano a mano in the Octagon. After a meaty version of the Star Spangled Banner, a military flyover. <\/p>\n

The 600-tonne claw that framed the White House flashed the colours of the US and dominated the imperious architecture of downtown Washington. Some 5,000 guests were on the South Lawn, surrounding the cage. Another 20,000 UFC fans were clustered on the Ellipse, the big green area directly behind the White House. <\/p>\n

Dylan Patterson flew up from Tennessee with two friends of his. \u201cI got two buddies in Washington in the army and they got us tickets,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I don\u2019t want to make it political at all. But last night was the most American thing I\u2019ve ever seen in my entire life. They shot off fireworks behind the Monument singing Born In the USA. Just the most American thing I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson cradled his beer and gave a low chuckle when asked if he was here to celebrate the big birthday also.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here for the event. Trump turning 80 … he\u2019s doing an okay job but politicians, either party, they don\u2019t care about the middle man. You make less than a million a year and they don\u2019t care about you.<\/p>\n

\u201cHear me out,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiberals are pushing for healthcare for everybody. I agree with healthcare for everybody. If you can pass a drug test. And if you can prove you are a citizen. It should be an American right to have healthcare for everybody. Why do I want to pay for you to go to the doctor if you are going to get high on cocaine all day? Now, weed\u2019s a little different. I don\u2019t smoke weed. But weed\u2019s a little different. But we need to get somebody in office who doesn\u2019t care about inside. I don\u2019t know who that is. We all thought it was Trump at first. That\u2019s why every Republican voted for Trump \u2013 because he was not a politician. And he has become one. So bad. You need someone to run for office who doesn\u2019t care about money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump gestures as he attends UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House. Photograph: Evan Vucci\/Reuters\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n

You didn\u2019t have to spend very long at the Ellipse to appreciate that the event was extraordinarily well orchestrated and presented. White managed to combine the kitschier elements of wrestling with the bloodlust promise of boxing to create, in two decades, a hybrid fight game that has had a narcotic pull for many young men \u2013 and a huge international streaming audience. <\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s event was broadcast live on Paramount, the subscription wing of the old movie giant. Just two days ago, the Department of Justice approved the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance, edging out the counter bid by Netflix. The deal has caused deep unease within Hollywood and places CNN, the news channel the Trump administration deems hostile, under the ownership of the Ellison family. David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance Paramount, was listed among the guests expected to attend here. <\/p>\n

But the $60 million showpiece \u2013 and the president\u2019s 80th birthday evening \u2013 attracted very few celebrities, with a long list of rumoured guests just not there.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump (R) watches the lightweight title bout between Georgia’s Ilia Topuria and America’s Justin Gaethje. Photograph: SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/Getty Imagee <\/p>\n

With July 4th, the official 250th anniversary date, fast approaching, the Sunday night fight event at the White House was an unforgettable visual presentation of just how radically Trump has altered the perception of what it is to be an American president.<\/p>\n

Down at the Ellipse, Paul Marnell was another visitor to town. Over the years, Marnell, from San Diego, has become a campaign-rally favourite of Trump after showing up across the country in his tailored brick-wall suit. But on this evening, he was clad in a red-T-shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really a presidential event,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cDana White is an out-of-the-box thinker, as is president Trump. It will never happen again. It\u2019s a singular event. And I wanted to be there to see it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remind Marnell that I\u2019d first met him on a frozen night in Des Moines in the very early days of Trump\u2019s re-election campaign. He says he\u2019s still all in and fairly happy with the path Trump has taken the country. Asked about what the United States can do to alter its course of an evenly split and hopelessly divided electorate, Marnell thinks for a moment. On stage, the US Army Band Downrange were giving Guns \u2018n\u2019 Roses\u2019 Sweet Child O\u2019 Mine everything they\u2019d got \u2013 which was lots \u2013 and in the syrupy heat, the crowd sang along.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people blame president Trump for creating the division,\u201d Marnell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy standpoint is that the division was always there. And it\u2019s a lot like if you have a wooden table that\u2019s dusty and if you throw water on it, you see the grain. President Trump \u2013 his presidency and advocacy for America First \u2013 has brought people who want open borders and illegal immigration into clear focus. That was always there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way forward is more people realising that for the longest time both wings of the party were at the same thing \u2013 bring in lots of foreign individuals for cheap labour, support foreign governments over the US. I am hopeful that Independents will break Republican again in 2026 and 2028. Trump is still working circles around what Joe Biden was capable of. Nobody goes on forever. But I don\u2019t see him slowing down in a way that I am worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n

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