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  "path": "/post/211140/donald-trump-paying-troops-audience-birthday-ufc",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-29T19:43:23.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "UFC",
    "White House",
    "Military",
    "American military",
    "audience",
    "Birthdays",
    "Flag Day",
    "The Washington Post",
    "$60 million",
    "HuffPost"
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  "textContent": "The Pentagon is mobilizing to deploy hundreds of troops—to the south-facing White House lawn.\n\nAmerica’s service members are being solicited to fill seats at UFC Freedom 250, a mixed martial arts tournament celebrating Donald Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14. But attending troops are not expected to get in for free.\n\nThe Defense Department is currently seeking junior enlisted personnel and junior officers, the lowest-paid members on the military’s totem poll, according to internal memos reviewed by The Washington Post Friday. Yet they’ll also be required to pay their own way, should they be admitted—neither the Pentagon nor UFC reportedly intends to pay for the soldiers’ arrangements or accommodations.\n\nPersonnel will also be required to meet height and weight requirements before they’re allowed to fill the stands, and will be required to attend in their short-sleeve dress uniforms.\n\nOne memo that made its way through the Air Force stipulated that personnel “MUST MEET CURRENT WAIST-HEIGHT RATIO and current physical fitness standard” in order to make the cut for Trump’s audience.\n\nWhite House spokesman Davis Ingle did not deny that a search is underway in America’s military branches to find seat fillers for Trump’s UFC tournament.\n\n“This will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary,” Ingle told the _Post_ in a statement.\n\nTrump is a lifelong fan of boxing and MMA, and has apparently used the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary as an excuse to host a fight at the executive mansion. The tournament will be the first UFC event ever hosted at the White House.\n\nThe main card will pit Justin Gaethje against Ilia Topuria for the lightweight title, and Alex Pereira against Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title. UFC’s parent company, TKO Holdings, has promised that the entire event—which is expected to cost around $60 million—will be funded entirely by the sports organization and come at no cost to taxpayers.\n\nBut Trump has already made a buck off the match. The president reportedly invested up to $50,000 in TKO Group Holdings on March 25, according to his May 12 financial disclosure filing, two weeks after the tournament was formally announced.\n\n“Using the White House to promote a company whose stock you bought while promoting it is one of the worst conflicts of interest you could imagine,” Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost. “The agenda of this administration seems to start and stop with how to make Donald Trump richer.”",
  "title": "Humiliating Detail About Trump’s Birthday UFC Fight Exposed"
}