New court filings reveal the eye-watering cost of Donald Trump’s White House UFC birthday extravaganza.
The president’s vision for a UFC fight on the South Lawn on his 80th birthday has become a $60 million production requiring almost 500 portable toilets, hundreds of trucks, up to 900 contractors, and support from at least seven federal agencies.
The extraordinary details emerged in court documents filed on Wednesday as the administration battles a lawsuit seeking to stop the event before fight night.
The filings offer the clearest glimpse yet into the scale of what Trump has dubbed “UFC Freedom 250”—a weekend-long spectacle culminating Sunday with a fight card staged on the White House lawn.
What Trump originally pitched as an event for 20,000 to 25,000 people has ballooned dramatically. Court records show organizers now expect around 125,000 attendees, while another 75,000 people requested tickets.
To accommodate them, planners have arranged for as many as 494 portable toilets across the White House grounds and the nearby Ellipse.
The more than $60 million price tag covers production, construction, labor, promotion, and food, according to a sworn statement from White House management and administration director Joshua Fisher.
Since construction began on May 20, between 20 and 30 trucks loaded with staging equipment have been screened daily before entering the heavily secured grounds.
The build has required between 700 and 900 subcontractors with “specialized knowledge associated with each element of the build,” Fisher said.
The centerpiece is UFC’s Octagon, which was erected on the South Lawn alongside massive lighting rigs, bleacher seating, broadcast infrastructure, and a giant lighting structure known as “the Claw.”
While UFC is footing the bill, the federal government is providing security, law enforcement, and emergency medical support. At least seven federal agencies have devoted resources and manpower to the undertaking, according to the Associated Press.
The disclosures came as the administration fights a legal challenge from two Virginia residents who argue federal landmarks should not be used for what they describe as a private, for-profit sporting spectacle.
The pair also contend the UFC card is really a celebration of Trump’s 80th birthday rather than America’s 250th anniversary and therefore should not qualify for exemptions from certain environmental and permitting requirements.
The Justice Department has urged a judge to throw out the lawsuit, accusing the plaintiffs of trying to “ruin an event designed to celebrate the United States of America.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, a Justice Department spokesperson dismissed the case as “a desperate last-ditch attempt to attack the celebration of America’s 250th Birthday by people who hate fun.”
A Trump administration official similarly called the lawsuit “obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory,” telling the Daily Beast the event would become “one of the most historic sporting events in our Nation’s history.”
According to the filings, the temporary arena and its infrastructure will begin coming down Monday morning and are expected to be gone by June 23.
For one weekend, however, the White House will effectively become the world’s most expensive UFC venue.
