President Trump loves the UFC ring on the White House South Lawn so much that he thinks it could stay there permanently.
On his official TikTok account Tuesday, Trump posted a video titled “MAYBE WE’LL NEVER TAKE IT DOWN,” comparing the arena to France’s Eiffel Tower, which was originally supposed to be temporary but stayed up. Like the tower, Trump said, the arena is “quite attractive to a lot of people” so “maybe we’ll never ever take it down.”
“People don’t know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower, 1889 it was built. It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the world’s fair, and then they said … ‘Leave it up a little bit longer, and then they said, ‘Let’s leave it up longer and longer and longer,’” Trump said.
“Well, they never took it down, and you know we’re building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people. Really, it’s going to have the big UFC fight on June 14, and I’m looking at i,t and maybe we’ll never ever take it down,” the president added.
The UFC arena is being built for a June 14 fight scheduled as part of Trump’s Freedom 250 festivities, coinciding with Flag Day and Trump’s 80th birthday. Paid for by the UFC’s parent company, TKO Sports, the $60 million arena dwarfs the surrounding landscape and the White House behind it.
Is Trump trying to avoid paying for the arena to be taken down? Taxpayers are already expected to foot the bill for security for the fight, which the White House hasn’t said anything about and will probably be quite high. While the Eiffel Tower was only supposed to stay up for 20 years after its construction in 1889, it remains open to the public and is a major tourist attraction.
A UFC arena on the White House grounds would be closed to anyone who isn’t authorized by the president to be there. Trump has already turned part of Pennsylvania Avenue into a (ostensibly temporary) parking lot for America 250 events and bulldozed the White House’s East Wing to make room for an unpopular ballroom. What’s another permanent eyesore on what used to be considered the “People’s House”?