{"slug": "donald-trump-turns-80-and-celebrates-with-ufc-cage-fighting-on-the-white-house", "title": "Donald Trump turns 80 and celebrates with UFC cage fighting on the White House lawn", "summary": "President Donald Trump turned 80 on Sunday and celebrated with a UFC cage-fighting event on the White House South Lawn, featuring seven fights under the Freedom 250 banner. The event, costing over $60 million, highlights Trump's long-standing relationship with UFC CEO Dana White and occurs amid an unpopular war with Iran and high inflation.", "body_md": "**Getting your**\n\n[Trinity Audio](//trinityaudio.ai)player ready...By **DAN GELSTON**, Associated Press\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump turned 80 on Sunday and was set to celebrate with one of the more surreal spectacles both in sports and even in the nation’s capital: cage fighting on the White House lawn.\n\nAgainst the backdrop of a 3-month-old war with Iran that’s been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets and with inflation spiked to the highest level since April 2023, the White House — long known as the people’s house and a symbol of American democracy — opened its backyard Sunday night to stage a bruising UFC card on the South Lawn.\n\nMore than $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been poured into building the arena, according to a court filing from the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn.\n\nUFC is staging seven fights with male fighters under the Freedom 250 banner to celebrate Trump’s 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing.\n\nThe fight card headlined by two title fights on Paramount+ is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Eastern.\n\nIt’s the pinnacle of the relationship between UFC CEO Dana White and Trump that has yielded personal, political and financial dividends for both parties in a relationship that goes back 25 years. White’s first card as UFC president came in 2001 at an event held at Trump Taj Mahal.\n\nTrump has attended four UFC cards as sitting president, walking to the cage amid rock music and patriotic chants from fans much like the fighters themselves. White introduced Trump at two Republican National Conventions. White also attended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April that was cut short by a shooting.\n\nIn a card that has been panned by fans online as underwhelming, Alex Pereira of Brazil will meet Ciryl Gane of France for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Spanish-Georgian lightweight champion Ilia Topuria then takes on interim champ Justin Gaethje, one of just two Americans who currently hold even a share of the UFC’s 11 championship belts.\n\nThere are five other fights on the main card that include former title-fight participants Michael Chandler and Derrick Lewis and former 135-pound champion Sean O’Malley.\n\nWhite said the show will go on rain or shine. Strong thunderstorms and heavy lightning disrupted Friday’s Lincoln Memorial promotional event, and the forecast for Sunday evening also looks threatening.\n\n___", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/donald-trump-turns-80-and-celebrates-with-ufc-cage-fighting-on-the-white-house", "canonical_source": "https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/14/donald-trump-ufc-party/", "published_at": "2026-06-14 14:37:44+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-14 14:43:13.425794+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Donald Trump", "UFC", "Dana White", "White House", "Alex Pereira", "Ciryl Gane", "Ilia Topuria", "Justin Gaethje"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/donald-trump-turns-80-and-celebrates-with-ufc-cage-fighting-on-the-white-house", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/donald-trump-turns-80-and-celebrates-with-ufc-cage-fighting-on-the-white-house.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/donald-trump-turns-80-and-celebrates-with-ufc-cage-fighting-on-the-white-house.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/donald-trump-turns-80-and-celebrates-with-ufc-cage-fighting-on-the-white-house.jsonld"}}