Federal judge rejects last-ditch lawsuit, clearing White House South Lawn for UFC fights on Trump's 80th birthday

Legal challenge dismissed

A federal judge on Friday declined to stop the Ultimate Fighting Championship from staging cage fights on the White House South Lawn, ruling that the two Washington-area residents who sued had waited too long and would suffer no permanent harm. Judge Amit P. Mehta, an Obama appointee, said the plaintiffs' aesthetic complaints were "ancillary and temporary" and noted that the 92-foot-tall steel structure known as "The Claw" would start being dismantled at 10 a.m. on Monday.

“Plaintiffs' asserted harms also are not irreparable because they are both ancillary and temporary.”

The lawsuit, filed on June 6 by political organiser Susan Douglas and Air Force veteran Paul Romano with backing from the progressive Public Integrity Project, argued that a for-profit sporting event was an unlawful commercial use of the South Lawn and the Lincoln Memorial, where a weigh-in was held. The plaintiffs claimed the spectacle was "deeply corrupt" and designed to benefit UFC and its parent company TKO Group Holdings, which also owns WWE and counts longtime Trump ally Linda McMahon among its former executives.

“This nation's public monuments should not be loaned out for private exploitation.”

The scale of the spectacle

Crews have erected an octagonal cage inside a 600-tonne, 92-foot-tall (28-metre) steel arena on the South Lawn. President Trump said the venue would seat 5,000, while German press reports put the capacity at more than 4,000. Additional giant screens in the nearby Ellipse park will broadcast the fights to as many as 85,000 free-ticket holders, and German agency dpa reported that more than 120,000 fans are expected at that site. UFC has spent $60 million and mobilized up to 900 workers over nearly a year of planning, according to court filings cited by Politico.

“The court rightly rejected an untimely and frivolous effort to halt the historic UFC event hosted to honor the 250th anniversary of our Nation.”

A quarter-century of mutual promotion

The event is the latest chapter in a symbiotic relationship between UFC boss Dana White and Donald Trump. As AP recount, White’s first card as UFC president took place at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City in February 2001, where he vowed to make it "the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts." Twenty-five years later, the promotion has become a touchstone of the right-wing "manosphere" that helped propel Trump back to the White House, and White has been a fixture at Republican conventions.

White told Time that the event would be "the most historic sporting event in history," and Wired reports he expects "Super Bowl type numbers" for the Paramount+ stream. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared alongside White earlier this week to sign a memorandum on sports diplomacy, comparing the UFC’s founding to the moon landing before the promotion takes over the people’s house.

Controversy and political backdrop

The fights proceed against a tense political backdrop. AP notes that the spectacle unfolds during a three-month-old war with Iran that has rattled oil markets and pushed U.S. inflation to its highest since April 2023. Critics allege the event is a vanity celebration for the president and his allies.

“This isn't a case about a sporting event, it's about corruption, as a handful of people and companies stand to profit off our public monuments.”

The White House dismissed those accusations, and Judge Mehta’s ruling emphasised that the president’s "musings about permanency" could not override a clear government promise that The Claw would vanish within days.