Judge rules Trump can stage UFC fights on the South Lawn of the White House this weekend

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday to allow the White House to stage a UFC show this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a legal advocacy group’s request to block organizers from using the White House lawn as a venue for a UFC mixed martial arts event scheduled for Sunday.

Watch live: UFC Freedom 250 holds press conference ahead of White House fight on Trump’s birthday

Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely had no legal standing to challenge the event and failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by going ahead with the event as planned. The judge also noted the plaintiffs’ “unreasonable delay” in filing suit to challenge an event that had been in the works for months.

“In the context of the emergency request — coupled with the fact that the UFC’s fighting history has been known for a long time — it is fair to say that Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed filing suit, undermining their claims of irreparable harm,” Mehta wrote.

Lawyers from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project have filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s “UFC Freedom 250” event on behalf of an activist and Vietnam War veteran. The plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on the White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called The Claw.

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The judge noted that the plaintiffs’ alleged “aesthetic damages” are temporary as The Claw will be dismantled starting Monday morning and the display equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. “The President’s musings about the permanence of the claw do not move the dial in the face of the clear representation of a White House official,” the judge wrote.

The White House called the lawsuit a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event not unlike many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation’s capital.

The Trump administration cannot issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a news conference in front of fans on Friday, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs. They pointed out that the event is a for-profit commercial venture organized by the private sector, with VIP performances costing millions of dollars.

“The President’s administration grants the UFC an extraordinary business opportunity that it may not otherwise lawfully grant, and in return the UFC holds an event at which its leaders, fighters, advertisers, and various celebrities will pay tribute to the President on his birthday,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.

Brendan Ballou, an attorney with the Public Integrity Project, said prosecutors were disappointed in the judge’s decision but respect it and intend to “continue bringing cases to raise the cost of corruption in America.”

“This is not a case about a sporting event, this is a case of corruption, where a handful of people and companies stand to benefit from our public monuments,” Ballou said in a statement.

The National Park Service and the Department of the Interior are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In 2019, during his first term, Trump became the first president to attend a UFC show. Trump, a Republican, is friends with UFC president and CEO Dana White.

Mehta was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mehta has presided over other cases related to Trump, including civil lawsuits accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.