President Donald Trump's plan to host an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event at the White House on Sunday is unprecedented in American history, historians say, though past presidents have engaged in sports and entertainment on the grounds.
Historical Precedents for Presidential Sports
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley points to Teddy Roosevelt as a progenitor. Roosevelt, president from 1901 to 1909, was a keen boxer who regularly sparred behind closed doors with aides, friends, and professional athletes while in office. He was partially blinded while boxing with a military aide, a fact kept secret until after his presidency.
Roosevelt also pioneered Japanese martial arts in the U.S. After winning the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War, he became an admirer of Japan. In 1907, he invited sumo wrestler Hitachiyama Taniemon to the White House to showcase the sport, though he declined an offer to bout. Two years earlier, he invited martial artist Yamashita Yoshitsugu to demonstrate jiu-jitsu in the East Room, and Roosevelt himself participated in the exhibition. He later hired Yoshitsugu to teach at the Naval Academy, wanting jiu-jitsu in the armed forces.
Brinkley sees these events as antecedents to Trump's UFC event, though wildly different. "TR was courting Japan, and Trump's is trying to entice his dwindling MAGA base," he said.
Other Presidential Pastimes
Brinkley also notes "Hooverball," a high-intensity game played by Herbert Hoover (1929-1933) on White House grounds, similar to volleyball but with a 4- to 6-pound medicine ball. He compares Trump's event to the first Fourth of July celebration in 1801, hosted by Thomas Jefferson, which included horse races, cockfights, and militia parades on the north grounds of President's Park.
Adam Smith, professor of U.S. political history at Oxford, recalls Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration, where over 20,000 ordinary Americans descended on the capital. Jackson also hosted a White House feeding frenzy with a 1,400-pound block of cheese. Smith says Jackson's post-inauguration "smash up" saw supporters take souvenirs like bits of curtain and carpet. "In terms of the desecration of the executive mansion, a lot of the rhetoric and noise about it was probably quite similar," Smith said.
Unique Scale and Controversy
Smith emphasizes that nothing on the scale of Trump's UFC event has been attempted before. The White House South Lawn is being transformed into an eight-sided wire-mesh cage with overhead lighting called The Claw and bleachers for 4,000 people, with up to 100,000 potentially watching from a nearby park. The seven mixed-martial arts fights are billed as part of America's 250th anniversary celebrations and coincide with Trump's 80th birthday.
Edward Lengel, chief historian of the White House Historical Association during Trump's first term, says "strange things" have long happened at the White House, from presidents behaving badly to housing bizarre pets. He notes highbrow entertainment like Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing for Jimmy Carter in 1979. But he argues hosting a "vicious and violent sport" on the South Lawn "transcends the bounds of tastelessness" and would have repulsed the Founding Fathers, particularly George Washington, who believed entertainment at the White House should be carefully managed to lift up the presidency.
Smith adds that Trump's tendency to "hawk the White House around" would have alarmed the founders more, especially Trump purchasing stock in TKO Group Holdings, parent company of UFC, while promoting the event. "What would have appalled them is the overt ways in which Trump is personally profiting from being in the White House," Smith said.
The Trump administration defended the transformation, arguing in a lawsuit response that corporations are eager to see their brands near the Executive Residence, and noting that an ice-skating rink and Elton John concert were held under Joe Biden, and Barack Obama regularly hosted exhibitions and Beyoncé concerts. "No one raised a cavil at the Biden ice-rink or Elton John stage," the government said.
