Adam Schiff was fuming.
The left’s media allies were up in arms.
But Democrats just got curb-stomped by this reality check about Trump.
A Night Nobody in Washington, DC Will Forget
President Trump marked his 80th birthday on the South Lawn of the White House, where 14 fighters from around the world competed inside a wire-mesh cage during UFC Freedom 250. The estimated 4,300 in attendance included about 1,200 active-duty service members, who greeted the President with loud cheers.
Spectators watched underneath a roughly 90-foot-tall arched lighting grid the UFC called “the Claw,” which towered over a temporary arena complete with an octagonal fight cage. The event kicked off with the Marine Band’s performance of the national anthem, sung by Zac Brown, and was capped off with a flyover by the Navy’s Blue Angels. Thousands more watched on big screens from the nearby Ellipse.
American lightweight Justin Gaethje capped his unification championship victory in the main event over Ilia Topuria with a backflip off the top of the cage. The crowd roared. The crowd often broke out into “U-S-A!” chants multiple times throughout the evening.
Hill Wasn’t Impressed
Not everyone was feeling the patriotism. Jemele Hill, the former ESPN anchor who once called Donald Trump a “white supremacist” on social media and was suspended by the network for it, sat down with TMZ and let loose.
Hill told TMZ that while there were good moments, overall it didn’t feel like a “correct” representation of America, saying: “Everything about this felt gaudy. It felt narcissistic. It was like Temu WrestleMania to me.”
She also called out the lack of diversity in the crowd, saying it felt more like a Trump rally than a celebration of America.
And then she went further. Hill told TMZ that — thanks to UFC Freedom 250 — Americans are never beating the “showboating, ostentatious, rude American” allegations from other countries.
When Harvey Levin pointed out that there wasn’t much difference between Trump’s birthday bash and the party John F. Kennedy threw for himself at Madison Square Garden in the 1960s, Hill said the setting makes all the difference — telling TMZ: “The White House is considered to be the People’s House, that’s why it’s called that. It’s supposed to be representative of this country, and this was a different sort of feel.”
Hill also felt the whole event seemed to be about “sucking up to Donald Trump” and that everything felt “very rooted in MAGA.”
Levin Wasn’t Having It
Harvey Levin told the former ESPN anchor that it feels elitist to turn your nose up at the White House hosting the UFC, considering so many people watch it.
But Hill doubled down. She argued that UFC fans are a very “specific” type of people, even though millions of people tune in.
Think about that for a second. Millions of people watch the UFC. Fighters from dozens of countries competed on the South Lawn. Active military filled a huge chunk of the seats. And Jemele Hill’s takeaway is that the fans are too “specific” — which is the kind of thing you say when you don’t want to come right out and say what you actually mean.
Levin’s pushback was exactly right. He pointed out that UFC is wildly popular with fans of all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities. He also noted that it’s impossible to represent everyone in the country with sports, because it’s a huge country with disparate interests.
And none of that moved Hill one inch.
The Double Standard Nobody Wants to Talk About
The media criticism of this event has been relentless and, frankly, revealing. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) took a shot at the President, saying: “Trump is building a golden ballroom and for his birthday party — arranging a UFC fight on the White House grounds — while you’re fighting to pay this month’s bills.”
But the same crowd now clutching pearls over a UFC event on the South Lawn had nothing to say when Democrat politicians threw lavish fundraisers, Hollywood galas, and celebrity-studded parties for themselves. The selective outrage is a feature, not a bug.
The broader argument from Trump supporters is that UFC is a sport enjoyed by millions, that the sheer spectacle of the event is fun, and that Democrats and other left-wing critics are overplaying their hands and risk coming across as elitist by looking down their noses.
That’s putting it politely. What you’re really watching is a segment of the media establishment that has never forgiven working-class America for liking things they don’t like — MMA, country music, pickup trucks, and a President who actually shows up at the fights.
Jemele Hill calling UFC fans “specific” while sitting on a TMZ set and lecturing the country about what the People’s House should look like is the kind of tone-deaf move that cost the Democrat Party the 2024 election. The link between Trump and the UFC has been a key element in his forging deeper ties with young males who were a critical element in his 2024 election victory. The people Hill is dismissing as too “specific” are exactly the voters who showed up in November.
But the left never learns. They keep doing this — sneering at the things ordinary Americans enjoy, then acting confused when those same Americans don’t vote for them.
What Actually Happened That Night
Whatever the critics want to say, the event itself was a spectacle by any measure. For all the hand-wringing ahead of the card, the show delivered on the star-spangled smackdown that featured pulsating patriotism from the Marine Band, tributes to first responders, active military, and other White House-designated heroes.
Dana White said after the event: “It will never happen again. I can’t afford it. I’ll never do the Sphere again and we’ll never do this again.”
That’s a man who put everything into one night and watched it land. The fighters thanked the President. The military cheered. Gaethje did a backflip off the top of the cage. And somewhere across town, Jemele Hill was calling it gaudy.
She’s entitled to her opinion. But Harvey Levin was right to call it what it is.
Sources: TMZ, Mediaite, Fox News/OutKick, Yahoo Sports, CBS News, NPR, Front Office Sports, ABC News