Judge rules Trump can stage UFC fights on the White House's South Lawn this weekend

By — Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/judge-rules-trump-can-stage-ufc-fights-on-the-white-houses-south-lawn-this-weekend Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Judge rules Trump can stage UFC fights on the White House's South Lawn this weekend Politics Jun 12, 2026 5:03 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled on Friday that the White House is allowed to stage a UFC show this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation's 250th anniversary — on President Donald Trump's 80th birthday. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a legal advocacy group's request to block organizers from using the White House lawn as the venue for Sunday's planned UFC mixed martial arts event. WATCH LIVE: UFC Freedom 250 holds news conference ahead of White House fight on Trump's birthday Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely don't have legal standing to challenge the event and have failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by the event going forward as planned. The judge also cited the plaintiffs' "unreasonable delay" in suing to challenge an event that's been in the works for months. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. "In the context of an emergency application — and coupled with the fact that the UFC fight date was long ago known — it is fair to say Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed bringing suit, undercutting their claims of irreparable harm," Mehta wrote. Attorneys from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump's "UFC Freedom 250" event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. The two plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called The Claw. WATCH: A sneak peak of UFC's Octagon at the White House The plaintiffs' alleged "aesthetic harms," the judge noted, are temporary since The Claw will be disassembled starting Monday morning and staging equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. "The President's musings about permanency of the Claw does not move the dial in the face of a White House official's clear representation," the judge wrote. The White House called the lawsuit a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event that's no different from many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation's capital. Trump's administration can't issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a press conference in front of fans on Friday, according to plaintiffs' attorneys. They noted that the event is a privately organized, for-profit business venture, with VIP packages costing millions of dollars. "The President's administration