Grift is never far away for this White House.
No, I won’t be watching mixed martial arts on the White House lawn, the manmade spectacle ostensibly scheduled to mark the nation’s 250th or Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
There is nothing about this hyped “special event” to find attractive, despite the recognition that MMA has become the nation’s third most-followed “sport.”
So were the lions eating gladiators at the Coliseum.
But as a unique perversion of what we expect from government and from a White House that is meant to sustain community values, this staged extravaganza has an undeniable lure for understanding just how we have slipped in ethical principles, poor taste, and perhaps even legal violations.
Citing a lack of legal standing, a federal judge declined to hear a late citizen lawsuit filed to halt or limit the events to allow private takeover of the Lincoln Memorial and the While House itself from a branded, private promotion of bloodsport, but it helped detail the many unpleasant truths about where we find ourselves in the seemingly constant need to glorify Trump in our name – as well as provide the Trumps with new money-making opportunities.
The Cage Matches
For openers, calling this $60-million, partisan and personalized ego-trip a special 250th spectacle for American democracy seems a parody. The official Fourth of July holiday with celebrations, concerts and fireworks specified as nonpartisan, open to the public, and built around an existing holiday meant to honor the country’s independence, is only two weeks away. Why wouldn’t that be the central focus for a 250th celebration?
So, even the premise of a need for a separate White House event, even if largely underwritten by corporations seeking government contracts, is bogus.
Then there was the parade of third-tier performers deserting the effort when they learned that their would-be patriotic appearances for America would be turned into personal partisan hugs for Trump, prompting Trump to offer himself and a wandering campaign-style speech instead.
It turns out that Trump, who invested in the parent company of the for-profit Ultimate Fighting Championship presentation just before announcement of the event, stands to gain personally from its promotion – a birthday present to himself delivered in our name. And the Trump family is issuing a series of commemorative coins with the heads of Trump and CEO Dana White of UFC for between $250 and $12,000 each. Grift is never far away for this White House.
Plus, paying for much, but not all, the costs are corporate donations with labeled banners from companies donating a million bucks a pop for what would pass as payoff tribute anywhere outside this White House. Along with million-dollar viewing packages for corporate buyers, the event has become a celebration of values antithetical to the purpose of government or our appropriate regulation of corporate power.
It’ll be televised only by subscription cable networks run by the same people who have taken over CBS and maybe CNN and have vowed to make editorial changes to satisfy the same Trump who controls whether they get federal approval for pending corporate mergers.
There is the unprecedented access that Trump is giving to the UFC entrepreneurs to run their promotional campaigns through the White House and Lincoln Memorial, and then to control tightly who can attend – including members of the military selected for their adherence to Trump’s idea of an acceptably fit physique, another crazy aspect of the Trump personal agenda that his own body certainly could not fit.
The Values Questions
At the center of all this – inside a giant, newly constructed octagonal caged ring – will be seven no-holds barred male fighting couples. What does this have to do with America and its 250 years of democracy? What does it have to do with Trump’s love for bloodsport, so long as someone else is bleeding? What does it say about what he values in America?
A Reuters/Ipsos poll says that only 16% of Americans approve of holding a cage match at the presidential residence. There have always been sporting and arts events at the White House, of course, but nearly all have been low-contact affairs from tennis and softball to Easter egg rolls, and mostly all for kids. In 1926, a prizefight was held to help revive the 150th national birthday between a boxing champion and U.S. Marine veteran — who won.
Young men seem to be drawn to MMA, a highly violent sport whose goal is to physically incapacitate an opponent with fairly broad rules. They say MMA it offers an outlet for stress, a path to physical and mental resilience, and a space for authentic achievement. Politically, it is this “manosphere” that helped fuel Trump’s election.
MMA also appeals to White supremacists and carries a tinge of racism lingering from days in which slaves were required to fight one another in gladiator style.
But beyond the violent aspect of this cage fight, 6 in 10 adults say the country’s best years are behind it, few believe it is exceptional, and the president’s disapproval rating is historically high. Promoter Trump has pitched these matches as a source of national pride, showing once again his detachment from a world much more worried about economics, identity and health care than he recognizes.
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