WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday by announcing that an agreement to end the U.S. conflict with Iran was “now complete,” and by hosting a mixed martial arts cage-fighting event on the South Lawn of the White House, drawing thousands of spectators to a temporary arena under a metal arch dubbed “The Claw.”
Trump said the agreement would end the U.S. blockade of Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He acknowledged that crucial details still need to be negotiated over the coming weeks. MSI previously reported on the emergence of the cage structure itself as an unprecedented White House spectacle in a June 12 article.
Top administration officials and Republican leaders attended the fights, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Polish President Karol Nawrocki was also present. The event began with Trump walking from the Oval Office with UFC President and CEO Dana White to the Blue Room Balcony, where they stood for the national anthem as fighter jets flew overhead.
Thousands of spectators crowded into the temporary arena under “The Claw,” a metal arch fitted with lights, sound equipment and large screens. Thousands more watched on big screens from the nearby Ellipse, the park south of the White House.
“This event is a one of one event, incredible event,” White said during a Friday night hype session at the Lincoln Memorial, where fighters shoved and scuffled for cameras.
The lineup of fights included American lightweight Justin Gaethje, who wrapped himself in an American flag and stepped out of the Oval Office to walk to the Octagon, defeating Spanish-Georgian Ilia Topuria after four rounds that left blood on the cage floor. Trump later entered the cage to shake hands and watch a fireworks display that launched after 1 a.m.
Many winning fighters thanked Trump and God during their post-fight interviews. Heavyweight Josh Hokit, after his win, went further with an unfounded attack based on a right-wing conspiracy theory about former first lady Michelle Obama, saying “Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?” Hokit also placed a chain around the president’s neck.
Trump, wearing a suit and tie, spent much of the evening sitting and watching through the wire-mesh cage. At one point he spoke briefly with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who attended. When American Sean O’Malley fought Canadian Aiemann Zahabi, Trump donned a white USA hat. After Zahabi won, he shook Trump’s hand and saluted the president.
Earlier, during the opening fight in which Diego Lopes defeated American Steve Garcia, the president was seen speaking with first lady Melania Trump. After Bo Nickal knocked out Kyle Daukaus in the second fight, Nickal went over to Trump and kneeled down, speaking briefly with him.
“I gotta thank President Trump for making this happen,” Nickal said in a subsequent interview as Trump grinned. Nickal called the president a “special person,” before the song “YMCA” played.
The president tied the fights to larger celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The event was so centrally tied to Trump’s birthday that the G7 summit for leaders of industrialized nations pushed back its gathering so the president could attend the cage fights before flying to Europe.
The weekend also included some setbacks for Trump. Crews pried Trump’s name off the Kennedy Center after a judge ruled that naming the institution after the president had gone too far. UFC Middleweight champion Sean Strickland, an outspoken critic of Israel, was escorted from the Ellipse by law enforcement officers before the fights began.
An AP/NPR report noted that Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, celebrated his own 80th birthday in November 2022 with a private family brunch at the White House. White House spokesperson Allison Schuster called the UFC event “one of the most entertaining nights in American history.”
Trump has supplanted Biden as the oldest person elected U.S. president. He is constitutionally barred from running again. A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.
The White House countered with a lengthy statement from Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, Trump’s former White House physician, who said Trump’s “stamina, focus, and strength are exceptional and on display every day.” Jackson added that polling concerns were “being propagated by the same biased, liberal, Trump-hating press that completely ignored the absolute cognitive and physical disaster that was President Biden.”
Mike Fontaine, a classics professor at Cornell University, drew a comparison between the event and the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome. “This is a classic strategy,” Fontaine said. “In ancient Rome, the phrase would be ‘bread and circuses.’”
UFC said it is paying for the event. The National Park Service said in a court filing that $60-plus million and tens of thousands of hours of labor went into the event, and that seven government agencies allocated significant resources and manpower.
UFC also announced that World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency company co-owned by the Trump family and founded with the president’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and run by his son Zach, was added as an official partner for the event, creating a $250,000 athlete bonus pool for Sunday night’s winners.