Donald Trump might not want to break out hibirthday party hats just yet after an emergency lawsuit was filed to keep his UFC cage match slash birthday party from going forward on Sunday. Deadline White House’s legal blogger Jordan Rubin writes this about the lawsuit. Quote, a vulcano of corruption is what plaintiffs suing to UNITED STATES TO STOP THIS WEEKEND’S UFC FIGHTS AT THE WHITE HOUSE CALLED THE PLANNED EVENT. TELLING A JUDGE THAT PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP AND HIS ALLIES ARE POISED TO PROFIT, QUOTE, THE EVENT WILL FEATURE A MILLION-DOLLAR V .I .
P. PACKAGES, BRAND PLACEMENT OPPORTUNITIES ADJACENT TO THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL AND AN EXCLUSIVE BROAD IT’S A VOLCANO OF CORRUPTION IF ALLOWED TO GO FORWARD WILL MARK AN INFLECTION POINT IN AMERICAN HISTORY. THE IMAGES IT GENERATES WILL ONE DAY APPEAR IN THE HISTORY BOOKS. and not in the chapters about times remembered fondly. We could hear from the judge on that anytime.
I want to bring in Brendan Ballew. He’s the founder of the Public Integrity Project, as well as a former special counsel in the Justice Department. He HE REPRESENTS THE PLAINTIFFS IN THE UFC LAWSUIT. MIKE AND JOHN ARE STILL WITH US. BRENDAN, TAKE ME THROUGH THE LAWSUIT AND WHAT HAPPENS IF THE JUDGE RULES IN YOUR favor yeah so the basic issue here is this is not a lawsuit about a fight it is a lawsuit about corruption uh right now what’s happening is the ufc and its parent company tko are selling what are called sponsorship packages for $1 million to $1 .
5 million per person. Plus, they’re giving exclusive licensing for showing the title card to Paramount, which is closely allied to the president, and showing ads at the White House lawn and potentially even at the Lincoln Memorial. So we’re already seeing ads, for instance, for Monster Energy Drink. We’re expecting ads for Crypto .com and others.
All All of this is a way for the UFC and for Donald Trump, who’s invested in that company, to make a private profit from public property. That is the fundamental problem here. So that’s why we’ve sued in terms of what could happen here you know judgment this is before judge meta he is going to rule uh based on the briefings and it’s either that the fight could get enjoyed or at the very least if he finds that the plaintiffs have standing that the sort of most corrupt aspects of this could be reduced. So, for instance, the walkout that’s scheduled at the Lincoln Memorial for the UFC could potentially be canceled or moved. Mike, what’s interesting about the UFC birthday party slash cage match is that about a quarter of Trump’s base is into it.
The question was asked by Reuters. Is it appropriate for Trump to hold the UFC match? Just 16 % of respondents said yes. Even Trump’s worst poll, he comes in around 34%. So that’s not a third of Trump’s existing base that thinks it’s appropriate for Donald Trump to have erected this monstrosity on the White House lawn and decided to host this UFC fight there?
Look, I don’t think that most Americans would have a problem with a professional sport having an event on the south lawn of the White House. At the end of the day, we all celebrate sports together. We all sort of look to them as a way of unifying each I THINK WHAT CHANGES PEOPLE’S VIEWS ABOUT IT IS THAT IF IT’S DONE FOR CORRUPTION, IF IT’S DONE FOR REASONS THAT ARE ENRICHING THE PRESIDENT PEOPLE AROUND THE PRESIDENT AND THEY’RE USING THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY TO DO THAT. LIKE IF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL HAD A GAME ON THE SOUTH LAWN OF THE WHITE HOUSE, IN THE SAME WAY THE FIELD OF DREAMS FIELD IN IOWA ONCE A YEAR, I’M NOT SURE THAT’S THAT BIG A DEAL. BUT THE PROBLEM WITH THE OTHER, WHAT’S HAPPENED HERE IS THAT IT GETS LOPPED IN WITH EVERYTHING ELSE THAT TRUMP HAS DONE.
AND THERE IS A SUSTAINED BODY OF EVIDENCE AND A NARRATIVE about how Trump has used the office to enrich himself, and people around him have done that. So when they have an event like this on the south line of the White House, the average person looks at it and says, okay, is this truly a celebration of American sport, of the country, of people coming together to watch an event, or is it a way to make money? And there’s a reason, ethics experts will tell you, that people in power should not engage in anything where it looks like they’re making money because it raises larger questions about what they’re doing in other areas. Can we trust what an elected official is doing if if they are, you know, if there are accusations that they are making money at the time. So people look at this and they say, okay, what’s really going on here?
And I think that’s probably one of the reasons that there’s skepticism about it, but I don’t know if you think about it. It’s an extraordinary number, though, Heilman, I mean, it is around the approval rating for Donald Trump’s performance on the economy. Actually, that’s five points lower, that’s I THINK WHEN YOU SEE THOSE PICTURES, IT’S ANOTHER SIGN TO A LOT OF AMERICANS THAT ARE NOT FOCUSED ON THEM AND THEIR ISSUES. IT’S TACKY AS HELL, BUT THAT’S KIND OF LIKE WHAT’S THE PRESIDENT DOING? HE’S PLANNING A CAGE MATCH.
HE’S TEARING DOWN THE, THERE USED TO BE A ROSE GARDEN THERE BY THE IT’S JUST ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE BUT HE’S TURN DOWN THE EAST WING, HE’S TRYING TO BUILD THE ARK TO TRUMP, ALL THESE THINGS THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT VOTERS ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT, WHICH TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH IS LIKE WHY ARE MY PRICES GOING SO HIGH? AND WHY IS LIKE HE JUST JUST SEEMS FOCUSED ON ALL OF THESE THINGS ABOUT SPECTACLE AND SELF-AGGRANDISEMENT. SELF-ENRICHMENT TOO, BUT But it’s just sort of like he’s distracted, not paying attention to my business. I also think that there’s an element of this which is kind of like the thing this great moment. We’ll come back to the Knicks.
We’re in this great moment where the glory of IT’S A THING THAT’S NOT INFECTED BY POLITICS. POLITICS AND SPORTS ALWAYS GET COMMINGLED BUT IT’S STILL THE CASE YOU CAN GO TO A NYX GAME AND YOU CAN BE ROOTING FOR THE KNICKS OR FOR THE SPURS And you don’t know. The guy next to you can be MAGA. The guy next to you can be super woke. For three hours, nobody cares.
Yeah, you’re in a Mets game and you’re rooting for the Mets. And no one’s asking each other, hey, are you on Team Blue or you’re on Team IT’S LIKE A SAFE SPACE WHERE YOU CAN GO AND JUST CARE ABOUT A DIFFERENT TRIBE, NOT LIKE THE POLITICAL IDEOLOGICAL, PEOPLE ARE SICK OF HAVING POLITICS. IN FACT, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING AND TRUMP HAS DONE A LOT IT’S NOT A LOT OF THAT. THIS IS JUST NOTHING LIKE, OH, REALLY? EVEN IF YOU LIKE THIS PARTICULAR BRAND OF SPORT, YOU’RE KIND OF LIKE, WHY DOES DONALD TRUMP WHY DOES TRUMP HAVE TO HAVE HIS NOSE IN THIS?
WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE TRUMP-IFIED? WHY DOES UFC HAVE TO BE, HE GOES TO THESE MATCHES AND I KNOW HE GETS APLAUS BUT FOR THE THING I WILL SAY QUICKLY IS THAT THE THING THAT WE, THAT I SPORT, AS MIKE SAID JUST NOW QUOTING MITT ROMNEY, IT’S SPORT, MUST WORRY ABOUT RIGHT NOW IS THE SENSE THAT, LIKE, FINANCIALIZATION OF IT IS TAKING OVER. AND IN BETWEEN THE BETTING. THE BETTING, YEAH. AND JUST THE, AS YOU LISTED AT THE BEGINNING OF WHAT THIS IS ABOUT, IT’S LIKE, HERE’S IT’S THE ONE THING ABOUT THE KNICKS THAT BUMMS OUT REAL NYX FANS IS LIKE NOBODY IN THE CITY CAN AFFORD TO GO TO A KNICKS FINALS GAME OR ANY OF THESE PLAYOFF GAMES.
THERE ARE MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO GET A SEAT UP IN THE RAPTORS. NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO GO TO THE WORLD CUP WHICH IS A THING THAT PEOPLE ARE REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO. NOW YOU LOOK AT IT, IT’S 6 ,000, 18 ,000, $12 ,000 FOR A SEAT WAY UP IN THE NOSEBLEED SECTION TO GO TO A WORLD CUP MATCH. WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT EXCITED ABOUT THE WORLD CUP? FEELS LIKE IT’S OVERPRISED.
THIS IS ANOTHER THING WHERE IT’S LIKE IT’S JUST THE MOLDING OF SPORT AND JUST FINANCIALIZING. IT’S ALL ABOUT, YOU KNOW, PROFIT I THINK IT MAKES PEOPLE A LITTLE IT MAKES PEOPLE A LITTLE BIT NAUSEOUS, I THINK. BRENDAN, WHEN DO YOU EXPECT A DECISION AND WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THEIR ARGUMENTS? THEY WERE ALL ABOUT THE FIGHTERS ALREADY DROPPING WEIGHT TO MAKE THEIR WEIGH-INDS? YEAH, SO THE DECISION COULD COME OUT ANY MINUTE, COULD COME OUT TONIGHT, COULD COME OUT TOMORROW.
I THINK A NUMBER OF THEIR ARGUMENTS WERE JUST EXCEPTIONALLY week. You alluded to one of them, which is saying that they are worried about the harm to the fighters if this fight were delayed, given that they’re cutting weight and they might have to cut weight indefinitely. I don’t think that’s the case. If they reschedule the fight, they can just go back to normal living and then cut weight when you get closer to the fight. I think it’s very hard for the government to argue that it’s complying with the law here.
And in fact, it reversed itself a couple of times on what it was doing specifically at the Lincoln Memorial. So this all comes down to a fight over standing, whether the plaintiffs are the kind of people who can bring suit here. I will just say, you know, also they, at the risk of being a little repetitive, this isn’t a fight over MMA. In fact, I want to shout out my colleague, Sam Ward Packard, who really was the architect of this case. He’s a huge MMA fan.
But to go back to these earlier points, this is such a corruption of the BUSINESS OF THE SPORT WHEN YOU HAVE SUCH OBVIOUS PROFIT HEARING FROM PUBLIC PROPERTY FOR AN EVENT LIKE THIS. YEAH.
