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Agence France-Presse

It’s the ultimate symbol of American politics under Donald Trump – a blood-soaked cage match on the lawn of the White House for the US president’s 80th birthday.
A giant arena dubbed “The Claw” has been built on the famed South Lawn for Sunday’s tournament featuring 14 Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contestants.
Critics have panned the unprecedented US$60 million “UFC Freedom 250” event as tone-deaf at a time when Trump’s war in Iran has sent the cost of living soaring for ordinary Americans.
Trump says it is a great way to kick off the 250th anniversary of American independence – not to mention his own birthday – and has insisted UFC was bearing all of the cost.
But the billionaire Republican is also revelling in the macho side of an event that will see bare-knuckle fighters battle 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 close ties with the violent sport’s leaders and has attended several previous fights, endearing himself to its fan base of young men who were also crucial to his own political rise.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also hailed the event as he signed a partnership deal with UFC boss Dana White to promote mixed martial arts internationally.
“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 would certainly be unlike any other event in the White House’s 200-year history.
Around 4,000 people will watch the match inside the arena itself, with Dana White saying more than half would go to members of the US military. Another 125,000 were expected to see it on a giant screen on the Ellipse, a green space just outside the White House.
During a preview on Thursday, journalists were allowed to inspect the arena that weighs 544 tonnes, stands 47 metres wide (154 feet) and 28 metres tall – taller than the White House itself.

“The Claw” now stands on the same storied lawn where president Bill Clinton hosted the 1993 Oslo peace accords signing and Richard Nixon gave his final farewell.
But Trump, a former property tycoon and reality television star before his improbable political rise, 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, said.
“It’s loud, it’s glitzy, it’s glossy, that’s what this is.”
Loge said 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’s fireworks – and two guys beating each other up.”
Not everyone was so keen.
In the run-up to the event, the Trump administration has had to battle a lawsuit seeking to prevent it going ahead, alleging that it was an improper use of public land to enrich the president’s allies.
The White House rejected the claims in a court filing.
It also dismissed a suggestion – made by a certain Donald J. Trump – that the arena could even stay 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.


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Donald Trump

The Claw: a four-sided mass that arcs about 28 metres into the air. Photo: AP

Thousands of people were expected to watch giant screens outside the White House. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump at a UFC fight in Miami in 2025. Photo: AFP

A view of the arena from the back of the stands. Photo: AP

The fight cage up close. Photo: AP

'The Octagon' fighting enclosure. Photo: AFP

How it looks from afar, while construction on the planned White House ballroom in the area of the former East Wing continues. Photo: Reuters

Trump builds massive arena at White House for birthday cage fight

Cranes lift giant metal arches into place for the UFC event. Photo: AP

The project is part of a series of events celebrating the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence’s signing on July 4, 1776. Photo: AP

Construction on the South Lawn as work continues on the ballroom nearby. Photo: AP

Trump says may leave UFC arena on White House lawn permanently

Workers continue building the cage for the coming UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday. Photo: AP

A UFC championship belt is displayed as US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office in May. Photo: AFP

Workers continue building the cage for a future UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday. Photo: AP

A large tracing of '8647' into the grounds of the National Mall in Washington DC. Photo: Reuters

US’ 250th anniversary celebrations will put its decline on display

People walk past the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall on June 6, in Washington, as the Trump administration has repaints and cleans it ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary next month. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

People gather to watch Independence Day fireworks from the lawn at the US Marine Corps, or Iwo Jima,  Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, the US, on July 4, 2012. Photo: Reuters

A UFC championship belt is displayed as US President Donald Trump speaks about the coming “UFC Freedom 250” event, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 6. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

News

World

United States & Canada

US president to celebrate Sunday with a US$60 million spectacle amid war and economic turmoil


US president to celebrate Sunday with a US$60 million spectacle amid war and economic turmoil.


US Politics

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

Dana White

‘The Claw’ rises: White House Octagon ready for Trump’s 80th birthday cage fight

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}US president to celebrate Sunday with a US$60 million spectacle amid war and economic turmoil

US president to celebrate Sunday with a US$60 million spectacle amid war and economic turmoil