The fighters brought fireworks to the South Lawn of the White House.
When President Donald Trump accepted the April 2026 ceasefire, I knew he had committed the gravest political blunder of his career. America and Israel had cornered Iran, shattered its leverage, and battered its proxies. Instead of forcing permanent concessions, the White House now appears ready to rescue Tehran and rebrand retreat as a “peace crusade.” […]
President Donald Trump was captured on video “smiling” Sunday after an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter dropped a shockingly "offensive” and false remark about former First Lady Michelle Obama during the UFC event at the White House, CNN reported.Mixed martial artist Joshua Hokit, 28, defeated his opponent Derrick Lewis Sunday night at the White House UFC bout, and after his victory, shouted an inflammatory and false claim targeting the former first lady.“Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” Hokit said, eliciting both cheers and boos from the crowd, CNN reported.Hokit’s remarks also elicited a response from Trump, who was seated in the first row at the event.“In a brief moment captured on camera, Trump, seated first row at the ‘Octagon,’ appeared to show a half-smile seconds after the false remark, which has previously circulated online,” wrote CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo.Back in February, Trump faced rare bipartisan outrage after posting a video on his social media platform Truth Social that briefly depicted former President Barack Obama and the first lady as primates in the jungle. The blowback was so fierce that Trump – who denied being aware that the segment of the video he posted included the racist depiction – ultimately deleted the post.
It was a spectacle, with a presidential birthday and an Iran peace deal as context and background. “UFC Freedom 250,” a primetime fight night that played out just steps from the White House on Sunday night, combined sports and the office of the president in a way never seen before. Reactions to the event fell sharply along partisan lines, but the event…
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To celebrate his 80th birthday and the nation’s 250th anniversary, President Donald Trump hosted an unprecedented UFC fight in the backyard of the White House. The $60 million event brought the UFC’s 8-sided cage and a mixed martial arts extravaganza to the 4,000 attendees which included cabinet members and dignitaries. Now, Trump is headed to Geneva for the G-7 summit in France amid geopolitical rifts. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports for TODAY.
Eric Trump fiercely denied accusations Sunday night that he had contacted an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) commentator about whether any of the fights at the White House event that day were “rigged” – a denial that only intensified scrutiny from critics.In a social media post published just ahead of the White House UFC event, an X user by the name of “Sean O’Meowlly” flagged what they claimed was a “now-deleted post” by UFC commentator Daniel Cormier exposing alleged messages he received from Trump.“I’ll just cut to the chase. Are any of the fights tomorrow rigged?” reads a message alleged to be from Trump to Cormier, which has not been authenticated, though several media outlets have confirmed Cormier’s social media post revealing the alleged exchange – which was quickly deleted – to be authentic.As the initial post revealing the alleged exchange went viral – viewed nearly 12 million times as of Monday morning – Trump scrambled to deny the allegation.“This is completely fake! I have never reached out to Daniel. In fact, this is scary,” Trump wrote in a social media post on X Sunday night, a post he edited three times over the course of seven minutes to slightly alter its language. Less than 30 minutes later, Trump took to X again to deny the allegation, this time claiming the alleged screenshots of the exchange were generated with artificial intelligence.“We are aware of the fake, AI generated screenshots being circulated online,” Trump wrote in another social media post. “I have never spoken to Daniel. He has since deleted his post, which confirms it was clearly fabricated.”Another 14 minutes later, Trump again took to X to deny the allegations.“This did not happen. They were AI generated. Please be careful with reporting,” Trump wrote.The progressive media organization MeidasTouch flagged Trump’s multiple edits to his initial post denying the allegations.“The denial took three tries,” the organization wrote in a social media post on X to its more than 1.3 million followers.Others, like Adam Cochran, a professor and policy consultant, expressed confusion at the specifics of Trump’s denial.“Claiming it is AI generated when the guy posted it himself, and the post had a URL that then said ‘deleted by the author’ is next level stupid," Cochran wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 300,000 followers.The denial took three tries https://t.co/eEchcFMEA4 pic.twitter.com/vY6p7TAOrG— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) June 15, 2026
The UFC hosted a fight series on the White House South Lawn Sunday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump emerged from the Oval Office first, then fighters from around the globe followed straight into the fight cage, in part for the president’s 80th birthday celebration and to bring a sport long on the fringe of mainstream acceptance into a main event on the White House South Lawn. For [...]