Donald Trump is facing a federal lawsuit over plans to host a UFC cage fight on the White House South Lawn timed to his 80th birthday, as the president simultaneously pushes to put his own face on a $250 note, a gold coin, and even Mount Rushmore.
Filed on Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of two Virginia residents, the legal challenge seeks to block the June 14 event, which also coincides with America’s 250th anniversary. The suit alleges violations of National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands, and claims no environmental review was conducted before construction began.
“Trump sued for ‘corrupt’ use of White House South Lawn for UFC fight on his 80th birthday.”
“This is fundamentally a private, commercial, corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain,” said Brendan Ballou, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs.
Crews are already erecting an octagonal cage on the South Lawn. Trump has said it will be part of a “5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House”, with large screens at the Ellipse and up to 85,000 free tickets available for spectators.
The White House dismissed the lawsuit as “an obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory” attempt to stop Trump hosting the fight, arguing it was “no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn”.
The legal fight comes as Trump pursues an extraordinary campaign to brand the nation’s semiquincentennial with his own image. According to reports, the Federal Arts Commission has signed off a 24-carat gold coin bearing Trump’s likeness, and a limited number of passports will be issued with his picture and signature. Treasurer Brandon Beach said the moves were “not only appropriate, but also well deserved”.
Trump has pressured currency printers to feature his face on a new $250 bill, and $100 notes with his signature – a first for a sitting president – are already being printed. His supporters in Congress have proposed a bill to carve his face into Mount Rushmore, while AI images of a towering presidential library in Miami, styled like a Trump hotel, have been promoted by his son Eric.
“I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump has said, according to officials. In February, he offered to unfreeze infrastructure funds for New York and New Jersey if Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport were renamed after him.
As the nation prepares to mark 250 years, the president appears intent on making the celebration a monument to himself – even as a lawsuit threatens to dismantle the centrepiece party on his own lawn.