Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the White House on Sunday as the Trump administration hosted the first private, for-profit sporting event ever held on federal grounds, turning the South Lawn into a cage fighting arena for the president's 80th birthday.
Protesters lined the Ellipse south of the White House with signs and puppets depicting Trump and his cabinet members trapped behind bars. As thousands of UFC fans streamed past security checkpoints, opposing crowds chanted slogans about federal property and democracy while supporters shouted back with chants of "USA" and "UFC."
Susan Douglas, an organizer with Third Act Virginia, said the event stinks of corruption. "It's for Trump's birthday and has nothing to do with the founding of our country," she said, noting that she was one of two plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to block the event. A judge had rejected that lawsuit just two days prior.
The demonstrations stretched across Washington and the country under the banner "The Real Fight Is for Democracy." Protesters cited multiple objections: Trump holds significant stock in TKO, the UFC's parent company. The event also commercializes federal park land and glorifies violence on property meant for the people, they argued.
Fighters are scheduled to emerge from the Oval Office and enter a 92-foot-tall steel cage called "the Claw" on the South Lawn, while VIP guests who paid up to $1.5 million for ringside access watch the seven fights.
Marco Smith, a Third Act Virginia member who helped construct protest puppets shaped like a jail cage, said the display was meant to show where administration officials belong. "We made the cage to show them behind bars where they belong," he said.
Jason Simpson, a protester from Connecticut, called the event a "fascist, money-grabbing opportunity" and said he had been pepper-sprayed and beaten with a baton at previous demonstrations in recent weeks.
Hundreds of law enforcement officials, including the National Guard, Park Police, Metropolitan Police, and Secret Service, patrolled the area on foot, horseback, motorcycles, and in armored vehicles.
Several blocks away, roughly 100 people organized by Code Pink and allied groups gathered at the Wilson Building to launch "They Fight, We Feed," a community meal and counter-program that raised funds for local organizations.
Olivia DiNucci, an anti-militarism organizer with Code Pink, framed the UFC event as a symptom of deeper military and economic priorities. She pointed to the incoming $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget, the highest ever, alongside cuts to social safety nets. "Poverty is violence in this country," she said. "The fact that we have endless money for war and for weapons isn't surprising when you then see how much war and violence are glorified with something like this UFC fight."
DiNucci described Sunday's action as part of a broader summer of counter-programming against what organizers called a false narrative of national celebration. "We are building out counter-programming to juxtapose supernationalism, fascism and militarism," she said.
As fights began on the South Lawn, the Committee for the First Amendment launched a 90-minute concert called "Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment," featuring Bette Midler, Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Jane Fonda, Julia Roberts, Joy Reid, and Lily Gladstone. The program streamed to more than 500 watch parties organized by the No Kings Coalition and Indivisible.
Author James Rodriguez: "Turning the White House into a cage fight venue for a political figure's birthday while his critics protest for democracy is about as on-brand for modern America as it gets."
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