White House restricts press access for UFC event, handing credential control to promotion
Journalists will be blocked from the White House campus during Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 unless the promotion grants credentials, a break from precedent that has drawn protest from the White House Correspondents’ Association.
Event overview
The White House’s South Lawn will host seven UFC fights on Sunday, 14 June, as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of US independence and President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. A giant temporary structure, called ‘the Claw’ by Trump, will rise over the cage. Dana White, the UFC’s president and a close friend of the president, said attendance will be limited to 4,300 ticket-holders in the arena, while 85,000 more will watch on screens in the nearby Ellipse park.
- Strickland claims he is banned from the White House event.
- Dana White denies Strickland is banned and criticizes media credential restrictions.
- UFC Freedom 250 takes place on the South Lawn.
Press access restricted
Only the 35-member expanded White House press pool will have full access to the South Lawn, according to a White House spokesperson. The UFC has issued roughly 20 additional credentials of its own. Other journalists will be kept off the White House campus entirely and directed to media zones at the Ellipse or the JW Marriott hotel.
The White House Correspondents’ Association said the White House has ceded control of credentialing to the promotion, a setup the WHCA has challenged.
The WHCA has been pushing back on this, but we have been told there will be various Secret Service access points across campus and that the North Lawn is being used as a staging area for the fighters and UFC filming zone, and the White House is standing firm.
Strickland ban denied
Middleweight champion Sean Strickland said last week that he had been barred from attending after making remarks about Trump, Israel and the Epstein files. White dismissed the claim on Tuesday, joking that Strickland is “banned from humanity” but not from the event.
Of course Sean Strickland isn’t banned. Sean Strickland is banned from humanity. We don’t want him near any human beings anywhere.
Scale and spectacle
A Paramount crew will produce the pay-per-view broadcast on Paramount+, and Fox News is the pool broadcaster for the day. White has predicted the production will be award-worthy. The event has drawn a federal lawsuit seeking to block the fights, but the Independent reports that “the show must go on.”
Political overtones
Hosting a commercial MMA event on the South Lawn is unprecedented. The Independent notes that the conceptual seeds “would have never even been planted” under any other president. Criticism of the UFC’s own product—smaller cards and a reliance on the Las Vegas Apex facility—stands in contrast to the lavish White House staging.
