Trump Hosts Group Grift for His 80th Birthday

The day President Donald Trump becomes an octogenarian, mixed martial arts fighters are slated to stride from the Oval Office to punch, kick, and grapple in an octagon set up on the South Lawn of the People’s House.

Read more Keystone Kash’s Agents Raid Voting Group in Swing State

The eight sides of the cage bear the Bud Light emblem, the beer from Anheuser-Busch InBev that became the target of a MAGA boycott after it featured a transgender woman in a social media promotion.

After two and a half centuries, ground made sacred by hard-won democracy is being desecrated by group grift.

And it begins with the birthday geezer himself. The event will feed Trump’s grandiose sense of himself.

He has invested between $15,000 and $50,000 in UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings. That is not a HUGE investment, but it joins the overall tally of grifting by Trump and his family since he returned to office. The total is said to exceed $4 billion.

As always, the gifting is mutual. The people who feed Trump’s ego or fill his pockets or both do so looking for something from him just as he is looking for something from them. That includes UFC and Paramount+.

UFC signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion exclusive U.S. media rights deal with Paramount+ in August. Paramount+ is a video streaming service owned by Paramount-Skydance, which is close to finalizing an acquisition of Warner Brothers in a $110 billion deal with Trump’s helpful blessing.

In what reality TV executives call “eventing,” the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s ultimate intent is to use the dual birthdays at the White House as the ultimate setup for the ultimate reality live stream. Camera angles have been planned so that either the White House or the Washington Monument appears in every shot.

What is essentially an advertisement has appeared in bold in online reports by CBS Sports (owned by Paramount Skydance) about the upcoming event:

“Sign up for Paramount+ and watch UFC Freedom 250 live for no additional fee — every UFC numbered event and UFC Fight Night is included with your subscription! Plans start as low as $8.99/month or $89.99/year.”

To avoid any additional fees, you must pay a fee upfront when subscribing, which is more than a one-time pay-per-view. UFC’s parent company, TKO, insists that this does not amount to cashing in.

“We will not profit from the White House event independently,” Mark Shapiro, COO of TKO, told Wall Street analysts in February. “We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary. This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media.”

He added, “This is about sampling, new fans, casual viewers, a spectacle on a stage that will ultimately expand our audience, our viewership and our success on Paramount+. We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall, and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe.”

In other words, TKO hopes that all the earned media from Freedom 250 will eventually translate into significant earnings for both it and Paramount-Skydance.

Read more Thousands Tune in Live to Watch Trump’s Ultimate Humiliation

Earned media is publicity you do not actually pay for, media attention such as was generated last July when Trump first spoke publicly of holding a UFC event at the White House.

Trump had privately raised the possibility during a raucous UFC event at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 16, 2024, less than a fortnight after he was elected to a second term. The crowd cheered as he entered the arena with UFC President Dana White at his side, Elon Musk and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson trailing. Kid Rock’s “American Bad A–” was booming.

“He leaned over to me and says, ‘We should do a fight at the White House,’” White later told The Hollywood Reporter. “I said, ‘Yes, we should.’ I didn’t know what he meant… I was thinking maybe there’s some room that he’s thinking about where we’d have it. He’s like, ‘No, we’re gonna do it outside on the South Lawn.”

As the suggestion has become surreal, TKO’s $60 million outlay for the event is being partly offset by the sale of $1.5 million in seats. They were no doubt purchased with the expectation of more than just seeing a favorite half-naked fighter up close.

TKO also secured corporate sponsorships, including Monster Energy drink and Bud Light, which is apparently making a bid to get back in MAGA’s good books. A HUGE backer is Crypto.com, which has an extensive business partnership with Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). One deal involved TMTG acquiring $105 million worth of Crypto.com tokens.

Crypto.com purchased $50 million of TMTG stock. The two enterprises are bringing prediction markets to Truth Social, where the elder Trump is unpredictable except when it comes to hyping entities in which he has a business interest.

Meanwhile, TKO and Paramount+ have also been promoting the June 14 event with paid media. That includes a digital sign of these crazy times that was shining in the gloom of a downtown Manhattan subway platform this week.

The sign loops a video clip that begins with an image of the White House at night, fireworks bursting overhead, a dramatically flood-lit octagon in the foreground.

Then come images of fierce-looking fighters in action, along with Dana Smith pretending to look alarmed. The logo for Monster Energy drink appears, though it has nothing to do with the ensuing verbal message:

“JUNE 14. HISTORY GOES DOWN”

Next you see more fighters, along with Dana Smith feigning intentionally exaggerated alarm and a protective figure with an American flag draped over his back, his arms upraised.

The White House then reappears, small and at the bottom of the screen. The four fighters slated for the two primary bouts are shown above. The faces and upper bodies of the two contestants in the main event, Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, occupy half the screen. The sign reads:

“Paramount+ PRESENTS UFC AT THE WHITE HOUSE“

On top of all the other grifting, the Trump Organization has apparently licensed his name and likeness to a company called Trump Coins for a medallion called “The Official Gold and Silver of UFC Freedom 250.”

“DESIGNED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP,” the Trump Coins website promises.

The website adds, “Celebrate the road to America’s 250th with an exclusive Trump Coins x UFC Freedom 250 collaboration… This limited collection brings together patriotism, combat sports history and premium collectible craftsmanship in one landmark release.”

The site offers four coins at a range of prices: the cheapest is silver at $249.99, the most expensive is gold at $11,999.99, or less than half its actual value on a scale. The priciest one comes in a case that has photos of both Trump and White. It also has Trump’s “facsimile” signature, such as an autopen might provide.

Trump’s likeness appears on one side of the medallion. The other is stamped “250” and the first words of the U.S. Constitution, which refer to the real owners of the house that Trump and his fellow grifters are treating as if it were his as he goes from 79 to 80.

Read more Creepy Threat to Trump’s Big Birthday Extravaganza