The scramble for a seat at Donald Trump's Ultimate Fighting Championship extravaganza on the White House South Lawn next month has turned into something approaching controlled pandemonium. Powerful Republicans, wealthy donors, and everyday party operatives are all competing for access to what may be the most exclusive event of the Trump presidency.
The UFC spectacle, scheduled for June 14 to coincide with Trump's 80th birthday and the nation's 250th anniversary celebration, will draw roughly 4,000 spectators to the South Lawn. But Trump is personally controlling the allocation, a fact that has turned ticket requests into a constant barrage of calls, texts, and emails to White House staff.
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director and former UFC spokesman, said he receives multiple requests daily. "I get calls, texts or emails every day, a few times every day," Cheung told reporters. He's maintaining a running list of supplicants, many of whom appear to believe access is possible through persistence or connections.
The demand is extraordinary enough that even casual acquaintances are asking. Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, disclosed that a contractor working on her home offered to do the job for free in exchange for access to the White House grounds during the fights. She and her husband Eric have heard almost nothing else from friends in recent months. "It's the hottest ticket in town," she said. "This is going to be maybe the event of his presidency."
Republican senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio has been fielding requests from people who apparently believe he controls thousands of seats. He said he's not even certain he has a ticket himself, yet people "coming out of the woodwork" have sought his help. "I kind of laugh at it," he said, noting that his acquaintances seem to assume he has far greater allocation power than he does.
The tickets themselves are free. But the UFC is offering sponsorship packages that include ringside seats at prices of $1 million or more, with some reports putting the figure at $1.5 million. UFC parent company TKO Holdings disclosed in an earnings call that it expects to lose as much as $30 million on the event overall.
Dana White, the UFC president and CEO, told NBC News he gave most of his tickets to Trump and is left with roughly 200 seats for his own use. Another 200 are controlled by TKO Holdings, run by Democratic operative Ari Emanuel. Trump has carved out portions of his allocation for military members, VIPs that are expected to include friends and members of Congress, and administration staff.
The event has become another fundraising vehicle for Trump. Donors who sponsor the UFC fights receive the same sort of credit with the Trump administration that they would get from contributions to MAGA Inc., the super PAC, or other Trump-aligned entities, according to people familiar with the process. A Republican lobbyist directly involved said the Trump fundraising team is raising significant sums this way. "They are raising a s--- ton of money and have used it as another unofficial vehicle for corporate donors to give and gain favor with Trump," the lobbyist said.
A Trump adviser acknowledged the chaos. "The process has been absolute chaos," the adviser said. "It's hard to overstate how many requests have come in, but there is no doubt the people President Trump wants there will be there, and those he does not will not be." The adviser added that Trump is treating the event as "his show."
The White House is constructing an open-air stadium on the South Lawn featuring a 90-foot-tall archlike structure as a centerpiece. The UFC is assembling the structure in rural Lititz, Pennsylvania, then breaking it down for shipment to Washington, where it will take roughly a month to reassemble. An additional 85,000 spectators are expected to watch from the Ellipse, south of the White House, while Paramount+ will livestream for subscribers nationwide.
Trump himself has been talking up the event. In a Friday interview with NBC News, he described it as the "hottest ticket I've ever been involved with." He appeared in the Oval Office with four fighters on the June 14 card and marveled at one fighter's handshake, describing his hand as being "like a baseball glove."
One well-connected Republican lobbyist who secured two seats offered blunt advice to others seeking access. "If you don't have a pretty close relationship with Trump or his organization, save yourself the pain," he said. "It's not going to happen."
The ticket allocation mirrors Trump's broader approach to leveraging access for fundraising. Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen's co-president Lisa Gilbert noted that while access-based favor trading is a long-standing presidential practice, Trump has refined the technique. She cited his use of various lures, from the East Wing ballroom to his cryptocurrency dinner invitations, all designed to appeal to corporate donors seeking favor. "It is unsavory if once again there is a connection to access to the president to do something special, to be seen as an insider," she said.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Trump has turned a sporting event into a masterclass in scarcity marketing and influence peddling, and Washington's donor class can't get enough of it."
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