MS Now’s Jonathan Capehart and columnist David Brooks mocked President Donald Trump’s plan to host a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn, telling “PBS NewsHour” on Friday that the Sunday event was “degrading” and contrasted with the artists former President John F. Kennedy once brought into the executive mansion.
Asked by PBS co-anchor Geoff Bennett what he made of the White House event, Brooks cited Kennedy’s guest list before landing on the comparison to mixed martial arts.
“Well, I first thought of, like, who are the artists John F. Kennedy brought to the White House? It was like W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein. And now we have got cage fighting. Don’t anybody say America’s in cultural decline,” Brooks said.
Capehart said the event carried added meaning because it was not simply a private sports production but one being elevated by the president at the White House.
“Well, it’s a significant shift because it’s the president of the United States who’s anointing it,” Capehart said.
Bennett framed the discussion around what he called Trump’s “alternative cultural establishment” of combat sports, podcasts, influencers and social media personalities, while noting the South Lawn structure known as “The Claw.”
“Whenever a president invites someone from the culture into the White House, it’s giving the imprimatur of the president,” Capehart said. “President Obama brought in Lin-Manuel to do what then became ‘Hamilton.'”
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Capehart also argued that the setting and visible sponsorship inside the ring changed the nature of the event.
“But this — a cage fight on the South Lawn of the White House, the people’s house that also has corporate sponsorship that you can see inside the ring — this talk about degrading the culture,” Capehart said.
“This is degrading the White House, degrading the people’s house, and it’s just unconscionable that this has happened.”
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Brooks said Trump could benefit politically from elite criticism of the event, telling Bennett that the reaction could help the president frame himself as aligned with fight fans who feel looked down upon.
“He wants us to be talking this way because he’s saying, look, you get looked down upon by people. I believe in cage fighting just like you,” Brooks said.
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UFC Freedom 250 is scheduled for Sunday night, with a custom-built Octagon, large video screens and “The Claw” on the South Lawn. The event is expected to draw more than 4,000 invited guests.
A federal judge declined Friday to block the event after a legal challenge. The White House defended it in response to the lawsuit, calling it “no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn and properly permitted events on the Ellipse and National Mall throughout the year.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
