Another bold advertisement of how radically different and horrible the Trump regime is:

Trump says he wants to stage UFC fight on White House grounds

Next year it will be fight to the death gladiators.

US president Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s thinking of staging a UFC match on the White House grounds with upwards 20,000 spectators to celebrate 250 years of American independence.

“We have a lot of land there,” said Trump, a UFC enthusiast who has attended several of its mixed martial arts matches in recent months and is close friends with Dana White, the league’s president.

Oh good. That’s an excellent reason to celebrate independence with a display of violence.

Military displays serve the same purpose, of course, but at least they are displays as opposed to the violence itself. We don’t generally drop bombs or sink ships by way of celebrating independence.

Trump has recently enjoyed standing ovations and cage-side seats for several UFC fights, including an appearance immediately after his 2024 reelection and another just last month alongside White for two championship fights.

Of course he has, the great big puffy flabby marshmallow with his painted face and gilded combover.

He’s been working up to it.

For the UFC, its association with Trump has granted the once-renegade promotion a new kind of political legitimacy and influence. It also set it apart from other sports leagues through its unapologetically conservative posture. The UFC is even sponsoring the United States Semiquincentennial dubbed America 250, joining the likes of Amazon, the Coca-Cola Company, Oracle and Walmart.

Since taking office in January, Trump has attended two separate UFC events. He most recently attended UFC 316 in June just hours after signing a memo ordering the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles County after Ice immigration raids sparked mass protests. He nevertheless enjoyed a standing ovation from the fans in attendance, and glowing endorsements from the fighters, one of whom even kneeled before Trump. UFC champion Kayla Harrison embraced him, planted a kiss on his cheek, and wrapped her championship belt around his waist as his family and supporters looked on in delight. It was a spectacle befitting the strongman Trump imagines himself to be.

Which is why Trump’s plan to stage a UFC event at the White House makes perfect sense. It is the natural climax of a partnership in which the UFC has become the stage for Maga mythology. It carries shades of fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini, particularly its obsession with masculinity, spectacle, and nationalism – but with a modern, American twist.

Yeah, this ain’t your great-grandaddy’s fascism, this is the new hip glamorous fun fascism where we deport immigrants to places like the Gobi desert and the smallest Galapagos island and then have a good laugh.

Fascist Italy used rallies, parades and sports events to project strength and unity. Sports, especially combat sports, were used as tools to cultivate Mussolini’s ideal masculinity and portray Italy as a strong and powerful nation. Similarly, Trump has relied on the UFC to project his tough-guy image, and to celebrate his brand of nationalistic masculinity.

Which includes conspicuous brown paint on the face and weird gilded hair and an enormous gut.

Loyalty to Trump, rather than the Constitution and the American people, has become the primary litmus test for political advancement. Meanwhile, sports have emerged as a central feature of his administration, advancing his policies while projecting a cult of personality and the celebration of violence. All of these are the hallmarks of authoritarianism.

There was once a time when the US could point to the authoritarian pageantry of regimes like Mussolini’s Italy and claim at least some moral distance. That line is no longer visible. What was once soft power borrowed from strongmen is now being proudly performed on America’s own front lawn.

Bam biff bop.