Tangle - UFC fight night at the White House.

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

On Sunday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hosted a mixed martial arts fighting event on the South Lawn of the White House, billed as a celebration of the United States’s 250th anniversary this summer. The event, which coincided with President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, was held in front of approximately 4,000 spectators, including top Trump administration officials, active military members, and high-profile business executives. Some lawmakers criticized the cost and aesthetics of the event. Ad-free podcasts are here!To listen to this podcast ad-free, and to enjoy our subscriber only premium content, go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠ and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Take the survey: What do you think of the White House hosting a UFC fight? Let us know.Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.This podcast written by Isaac Saul and audio edited and mixed by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Lindsey Knuth, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Morning, good afternoon and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking and a little bit of my take. Happy Tuesday, it's June 16th. I'm Isaac Saul. And I got to say, I'm still buzzing from an email I got from a 17-year-old reader yesterday. With his permission, I'm publishing it in full today on the podcast. I'm just going to be. going to read it to you. Hello, Isaac. My name is Graham. I'm a 17-year-old and I've been reading your newsletter every day for a few years now and I want to thank you for all your amazing work. This has been by far my favorite news source for years now and I recommend it to everyone. I can imagine there's not many young readers and listeners, but I want you to know we're here and appreciate your work. When I look

around at people of my age, it's easy to get hopeless about our future. People believe the country has been broken past the point of return. Although this company is one clear example of a way we can come back from this hopelessness and work toward a better future. Reading your work daily has inspired me to sit on my school board as the student representative next year, join my local youth government commission for the county and pursue a career in education and politics. If you ever need a perspective from a young reader or interested in bringing more youth engagement in the company, please let me know. I'm always open to helping. Thank you again for all your work. It doesn't go unnoticed. So how's that for an uplifting email to start your week?

Today, we're taking a swing at the UFC fight night on the White House lawn, a reader question about the Israel-Lebanon fighting, and a deeper look at the White House fight from the early 1900s. I'm on the mic today with our senior editor, Will K-back. It's time to lock in. Will? Thanks, Isaac. All right, let's get into today's quick hits. Number one, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base in California. Authorities believe all eight people on board were killed, and the cause of the crash is under investigation. Number two, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said that the Justice Department is investigating him and his wife, claiming that the investigation is politically motivated. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department has yet to comment on the existence of the probe.

Number three, British Prime Minister Kier-Starmer announced that the United Kingdom will ban children under 16 from accessing major social media platforms beginning in 2027. Number four, voters in Georgia and Alabama will cast ballots today in their state's Republican runoff elections for the Senate and governor. Oklahoma and the District of Columbia are also holding primary elections today. And number five, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican. Republican from South Dakota said that the chamber will attempt to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also known as FISA, without including the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, also known the Save Act, in the measure. President Donald Trump had called on Republicans to pass the bills in tandem, but soon called the idea, quote, unrealistic.

A celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary. Bright lights and bruising mixed martial arts. Far from UFC's typical indoor competition, the president and the UFC's Dana White appearing together. Longtime fight fan President Trump invited the UFC and its corporate sponsors to take over the White House grounds. I've got to thank President Trump for making this happen. Thank you, Dana, all the UFC, everybody. This is unbelievable. On Sunday, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the UFC, held a mixed martial arts fighting event on the south lawn of the White House,

billed as a celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary this summer. The event, which coincided with President Donald Trump's 80th birthday, was held in front of approximately 4,000 spectators, including top Trump administration officials, active military members, and high-profile business executives. Some lawmakers criticized the cost and aesthetics of the event. President Trump is a longtime UFC fan and a friend of UFC CEO Dana White, and he reportedly devised the event shortly after he won the 2024 election. In preparation for the fights, the UFC set up a temporary octagon surrounded by a 92-foot-tall lighting apparatus on the south lawn and held promotional events at the nearby Lincoln Memorial.

Two Virginia residents sued to stop the event, alleging that it violated environmental and National Park Service permitting requirements, but a federal judge found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. The UFC covered $60 million in expenses required to host the event, though multiple federal agencies were involved in its planning and staffing. Additionally, the federal government spent an estimated $10 to $12 million in supplemental security costs, which were appropriated from a fund approved by Congress. Many prominent Republican lawmakers and cabinet members attended the fight, including

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., defense secretary Pete Higsef, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Several tech executives were also in attendance, such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Crypto.com CEO Chris Marzileck. as well as Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and podcaster and UFC commentator Joe Rogan. Some lawmakers criticize the president for holding the fight at the White House,

suggesting it was an inappropriate location and a waste of government resources. Quote, Trump is building a golden ballroom and for his birthday party, arranging a UFC fight on the White House grounds, while you're out fighting to pay this month's bills, Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, wrote on X,

Separately, former Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a Republican from Georgia, said she didn't think UFC fights, quote, belong on the White House lawn. All seven fights ended in a knockout or technical knockout, the first time that has occurred in UFC history. Fighter Josh Hokit also sparked backlash for saying, quote, Michelle Obama is a man in his post-fight interview. Separately, before the event began, former UFC fighter Daniel Cormier posted alleged screenshots of, a conversation with Eric Trump, in which the president's son appeared to ask whether any of the evening's fights would be rigged. Cormier quickly deleted the post, and Eric Trump and his brother, Donald Trump Jr., said the messages were fake and generated by artificial intelligence. Finally, on Tuesday, Fox News reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested five people

connected to a plot to attack the event. In total, the Bureau identified 23 people allegedly involved in planning to use explosive-laden drones to strike buildings near the fight. These strikes were allegedly planned to trigger a mass evacuation from the event that would direct the crowds toward a sniper team. Today, we'll survey reactions to the event from the left and right, and then executive editor Isaac Saul will share his take. We'll be right back after this quick break. Here's what the left is saying.

The left criticizes the fight, with many calling it indulgent and vulgar. Some suggest Trump and his associates financially benefited from the event, and others argue that the celebration degrades America's national symbols. In The Guardian, Moira Donigan said, Trump presides over spectacles of violence carried out for his entertainment. Trump wants to see his name and his portrait everywhere. He wants to feel like a big man, to see those he feels have wronged him be penitent and upset.

Maybe most of all, he wants to indulge his own bad bad. taste. He loves the gaudy, clownish tokens of masculinity that appeal to very small children, big trucks, big muscles, and demonstrations of physical strength. Hosting a UFC fight on the White House lawn likely affirmed many of his own most base and childlike fantasies of narcissistic gratification. The use of government property and national landmarks for a birthday celebration for him, one that was a profit-making enterprise for many of his friends in the private sector, helped further his own efforts to symbolically fuse the federal government with his person, to insist that he is America and is the state. In Salon,

Sophia Tesfai called the event a gift to Trump's billionaire friends. The weekend was a case study in how the modern right-wing ecosystem transforms public institutions into branding opportunities, while portraying anyone who notices as an enemy of the nation. It was a gathering of people on public land at public expense to watch a private company's product, sponsored by the president's own businesses. The billionaire class was hosted to a weekend of high-rolling access, buying policy influence on Saturday

and sitting caged side at the executive mansion on Sunday. Freedom 250 isn't free, and millions of Americans are being forced to foot the bill, whether they realize it or not. Trump threw himself a private, for-profit birthday party at a time when working-class Americans are profoundly struggling. The only reason the administration and its media echo chamber are frantically calling it a patriotic celebration

is to artificially tie it to the nation's upcoming semi-quincentennial. They are maliciously conflating the official, congressionally mandated America 250 with a corporate, trademarked money-making scheme called Freedom 250. And the New York Daily News editorial board argued that the event debases the White House. Though it's easy to laugh at this,

we shouldn't forget what underlies it. Trump is intentionally desecrating many of our nation's most hallowed symbols, tossing out the celebration of national unity and progress that has been envisioned to create yet another rally for himself and his political movement, because he thinks and has long thought

that he is synonymous with, the state itself. In some ways, though, this is the most apt and most honest celebration of our current moment in American history. A staid celebration of our democratic norms and freedoms would be nothing but a farce, even a mockery. This spectacle is much more reflective of what Trump intends for the country. This low moment will go down in the history books, but we hope that it will go down as a mere warning of what can happen when we allow a conman to get so far in subverting everything our country is supposed to represent. And now on to what the right is saying.

Many on the right say the event was exciting and questioned the left's outrage. Some praised the event for its patriotic themes. Others say the fight mirrors the current political landscape. In the Daily Caller, Mary Rook argued that Trump is winning over red-blooded Americans everywhere. President Donald Trump is delivering exactly the kind of 250th anniversary celebration that millions of Americans wanted, bold and unapologetic events rooted in the traditions and values that built this country. Americans have already seen motocross stunts performed in front of the White House and the UFC 250 fight card produced on the White House lawn, complete with military flyovers,

country music, and massive fireworks. The reality is that the left was always going to boycott or criticize anything built under Trump's leadership. Predictable outrage and performer withdrawals were going to happen no matter what the events looked like. By leaning hard into red state patriotism, instead of chasing leftist approval, the administration ensures that everyday Americans have something real to be proud of supporting. The administration should keep doubling down on the heartland values and traditional American strengths that actually unite the majority of citizens who love this country. In Powerline, John Hinderaker said the event was spectacular and went off without a hitch. I will admit that despite my reservations about MMA, I enjoyed last night's

event greatly, as did my family members who watched it. The real point of the event, of course, was patriotic. There was a flyover, the Marine Band played frequently, and the fighters often made patriotic and religious comments after their bouts. The fighters walked out of the White House and were accompanied to the Octagon in each case by a Medal of Honor winner and a local law enforcement officer or a first responder. It was in some ways rude and crude. Apart from the violence of the fights themselves, there was bad language, and one fighter yelled Michelle Obama is a man during his post-fight interview. Democrats denounced UFC Freedom 250 as a desecration of the sacred White House grounds. That complaint does reflect the fact that for Democrats, government is religion.

The Democrats counter-programmed with a lame show that featured, I am told, washed up singers and elderly white ladies dancing badly. Happily for the Democrats, hardly anyone saw it. In reason, Billy Binion said, The fight is the perfect event for the present, not the past. A series of cage matches is an unusual choice to celebrate the history of the founding. But it is arguably the perfect event to capture this moment in history. The story of mixed martial arts is itself,

a microcosm of the progression. It would have been difficult to believe the sport would have a substantial audience just a few decades ago when it was banned in 36 states. Yet now it will have an audience at the White House. Its inclusion is a snapshot not just of the sport's surprising trajectory, but of how political sport has evolved in parallel. The South Lawn is no longer a place where outsiders are unwelcome by the establishment. It is a place where outsiders have become the establishment, A celebration that transgressed partisan lines to venerate the founding principles and the freedoms that make America unique would have been ideal. It also would have been an act as politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths about the need to come together while seizing virtually every opportunity to trash their opponents. All right, that is it for what the left and right are saying today.

So now I'm going to pass it back over to Isaac for his take. Isaac, over to you. All right, that is it for it with the left and the righter saying, which brings us to my side. take. Something very funny happened in the wake of the UFC fight night at the White House on Sunday. A writer on the left couldn't help but invoke 20th century French theorists to try to explain why human beings like a violent spectacle, showing themselves to be so detached from the appeal of a UFC fight night that they have to reach into academia for a framework to understand it. At the very same time, writers on the right try to say real America is entirely made up of

caricatured cowboys and energy drink guzzlers, then insist that an event like this with a 16% approval rating is somehow the purest form of our country's being. And then other writers on the left themselves insist that actually this, a violent, stupid, and conspiratorial spectacle truly is the real America, while writers on the right insist this isn't the real America anymore because we've become so emasculated, overeducated, and hypersensitive. It's all such trotten ground that it's equally amusing and stupid to me at the same time.

Some people enjoy combat sports like UFC or boxing because our species is prone to violence and we've spent millennia beheading each other for everything from petty crime to territorial conquest. Natural selection has both favored people who can cooperate as well as individuals who could compete for food and territory inmates with violence an efficient way to win those resources. I don't think this is all that complicated. Violence sports, UFC, boxing, football, rugby, wrestling, are healthy outlets for base-level reptile brain drives in a civilized society. One can hold the idea that resolving disputes with violence is bad

while also understanding the appeal of controlled violence is a form of entertainment in the year 26. Some people obviously don't like watching human beings having their face smashed in and bloodied. this is okay too. America, pluralism. If our country or species consisted only of brutish agro dudes who love breaking faces and resolving their issues with violence, it would be a hellish place to live. Are cultural elements of the UFC and its fan base indelibly American? Of course. Is the UFC America fundamentally? Obviously not. It's a slice of our culture,

part of what makes up the whole. I don't know why it has to be. any more grandiose than that. I'm probably a good example of these two sides of the American psyche. I personally enjoy the UFC. The controlled violence has an appeal that works for me, and it's fun to watch a fight and try to guess which fighter's particular style will prevail.

It is the unpredictability and competition that makes sports great and fun. But there's also a particular kind of knockout or leg snap that makes my knees weak and requires me to look away or bite a hard object to endure it. It's fun and it's crazy and unpredictable, and it's also a little too gnarly sometimes. That's part of the attraction and part of the revulsion.

It's entertaining, but I'm also glad when it's over. I carried those feelings into Sunday night when I missed the live event because I was driving home with the Tangle team from our own live event in West Virginia, which featured no head smashing or cage matches for whatever it's worth. But over the last couple days, I did catch every knockout from the night and all manner of social clips

from the post-fight interviews and pre-show pomp, and the patriotic celebration of America infused most of the evening. My feelings about that, like my philosophy on controlled violence, are decidedly mixed. On the one hand, I'm skeptical of the degree to which hosting a UFC fight is somehow a desecration of the White House. My strong suspicion is many of the people who feel that way wouldn't have much minded a boxing match a few decades ago

at the White House featuring a character like Muhammad Ali, who despite holding some pretty socially conservative views became a liberal cultural icon for his anti-Vietnam war stance. I'm even more allergic to the idea that any musical or sporting event is some new low in White House culture and integrity. Conservatives might make the case that hosting pride events with scantily clad or nude celebrations are equally degrading. I'd argue events like this are hardly the issue. One shouldn't have to invoke President Bill Clinton getting oral sex from an intern in the Oval Office to make the point, but our memories really do seem that short. On the other hand, those on the right pretending an aversion to this spectacle is proof of how sensitive and pearl clutch of the American

left is are also deluding themselves. This wasn't a unifying event and wasn't intended to be. This wasn't a celebration of American history. It was a birthday party for the president dressed up as a birthday party for us. I watched a fighter stand. I watched a fighter, stand, on the south lawn of the White House and declare that Michelle Obama, the former first lady, is a man on a broadcast stream to millions of viewers. This was a disgusting and embarrassing moment, even for a political movement that relishes pushing the boundaries and triggering the left. As reporter Sam Youngman put it, it'd be hard to imagine the coverage if Obama hosted a pay-per-view NBA event at the White House where LeBron called Melania a hooker. The hypocrisy really knows no

limits here. Glenn Beck, who once called it truly obscene and beneath the dignity of the office for President Obama to do interviews with YouTubers, is now defending this spectacle as a remarkable homage to America and praising Trump as the ultimate showman. Of course, some principled right-wing figures, even the most diehard MAGA defenders like Fox News's David Marcus, were capable of saying I was wrong and the event crossed the line. In the end, the whole back and forth over what is really a or appropriate is another distraction from the biggest story, which once again is corruption and grift. The UFC announced before the fights that the Trump organization's cryptocurrency platform, World Liberty Financial, would pay out Sunday's winners, in part using a cryptocurrency

traded on the platform, effectively leveraging the event into a giant commercial for the president's cryptocurrency venture. Trump also used the fight to promote and sell actual Trump branded gold coins, which he profits from selling for as much as $12,000. Trump owns tens of thousands of dollars of stock in TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of UFC, a fact he disclosed in a May 12th financial filing while promoting the event. Oh, and the entire thing was streamed on Paramount Plus, which last year signed a $7.7 billion media rights deal with the UFC.

Again, a company Trump is invested in, all after the president's strong-armed Paramount during its merger and acquisitions, gambits to shake up its coverage at its news networks like CBS. To spell that all out, Trump applied pressure on Paramount's potential merger. Paramount then settled a lawsuit to pay Trump off, then canceled Stephen Colbert's show, the merger got approved, and then Paramount broadcasted an event hosted by a company Trump holds stock in and has publicly boosted. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and if you're looking for an actual story from the UFC spectacle, I think you'll find

it there. The UFC is popular. The White House is not some unblemished historical artifact. Our republic can survive a night of pomp and violence. The biggest story with wider implications is our continued normalization of the president's obscene profiting and grifting and our curious ability to be distracted from it so easily. We'll be right back after this quick break. All right, that is it for my take. which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from CBW in Wisconsin. They said, I thought that Israel was part of our attacks on Iran,

but since the war started, it seems like Israel has been more focused on Lebanon. I also heard Israel was not part of the negotiations between Iran and the U.S. How does Israel fit into the war with Iran? Okay, so it's probably more accurate to think of the current war in Iran as two conflicts at the same time. The war against Iran itself and the war against Iran's proxies. particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon. As we discussed yesterday, whether or not the current memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran includes Israel or Hezbollah is a point of contention and controversy.

As Abdurama and al-Rashid wrote in Arab news, having a peace plan applied to Hezbollah could make Hezbollah a recognized and protected actor, noting the same could apply to the Houthi militant group in Yemen. The U.S. and Israel share a desire to block Iran from having a nuclear weapon, but Israel's fight against Hezbollah isn't one that the U.S. has joined. In fact, Israel has been fighting an all-out war against Iran's proxies going back to its response to Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023. Hamas and Hezbollah have been Israel's targets since day one, and the Yemeni Houthis have been involved for nearly as long. For that reason, Israel does not want a ceasefire with Iran to constrain

its efforts against Hezbollah, which it says is threatening its citizens in northern Israel, in which we should add, it is fighting in part by targeting resident. neighborhoods outside Beirut. With respect to Iran, other than a retaliatory strike on June 7th, after an Iranian attack, Israel has been adhering to the April 7th ceasefire and not engaging in direct action. It doesn't mean that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers Israel's conflict with Iran to be a mission accomplished, but it does mean he's treating that front separately from Israel's full-scale fight against Iranian proxy groups. All right, that is it for your questions answered. I'm going to send it back to Will for the rest of the pod, and I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good one.

Thanks, Isaac. All right, today we are taking a deeper look at sporting events and the White House. So here's a little history. While annual family-friendly favorites like the Easter Egg role and the presidential turkey pardoning might be the most well-known public happenings on the White House's historic South Lawn, America's backyard has been home to several sport-related events throughout its history. First up, President Dwight D. Eisenhower installed a putting green on the lawn in 1954 on the site of what had been President Harry Truman's horseshoe pit. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush built a new horseshoe pit, where he played against celebrities and world leaders, and he even demonstrated throws for Queen Elizabeth II. The White House T-ball initiative, led by President George W. Bush, began in 2001, bringing youth teams together to compete and celebrate the sport on the South Florida. lawn. But the White House's most consequential sporting event didn't actually take place on its lawn.

In 1904, in a gymnasium somewhere inside the White House, the precise location of which is still unknown, President Theodore Roosevelt, was punched in the left eye by his cousin-in-law, Colonel Dan T. Moore, during a boxing match. The president whose pastimes also included tennis, fencing, jujitsu, and a sport called single stick, revealed only after he left office that he had been blind in that eye ever since. He broke the news while speaking to reporters outside of a health camp, where he had just completed a weight loss program. And when they pressed him for more details on the fight and the subsequent injury, Roosevelt

responded, quote, there is to be nothing more to say about the matter. And finally, here is today's Happy Nice Day story, which also ties in some athletics. Carl Anthony Towns just won his first NBA championship with the New York Knicks, who themselves ended a 53-year title drought. But throughout the series, his mind was on more than basketball. This April marked six years since his mother passed away from COVID-19 complications, and towns also lost seven other family members to the virus. The Minnesota Timberwolves, the team that drafted him and his team at the time of her passing,

described his mother as a, quote, fiery, caring, and extremely loving person who touched everyone she met, end quote. During the second game in the Best of Seven final series, Towns looked to the sky and blew a kiss. He says he feels her support while playing. Quote, I just feel a calm and a peace that had to be coming from the woman above. He said, I do it all for my family in New Jersey that allowed me to love this game of basketball and allowed me to be a kid with my mother.

The Today Show has this story and we'll put a link to it in today's show notes. All right, that is it for today's edition. Thanks as always for being with us. you tomorrow. Until then, peace. Our executive editor and founder is me, Isaac Saul, and our executive producer is John Wall. Today's episode was edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Our editorial staff is led by managing editor Ari Weitzman with senior editor Will Kayback and associate editor, Audrey Moorhead, Lindsay Canuth, and Bailey Saul. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. To learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership, please visit our website at Retangle.

dot com.