Two Virginia residents filed a lawsuit on Saturday in hopes of stopping President Donald Trump’s plans to host a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration.
The suit, which was reviewed by Variety, was filed against the National Park Service and the United States Department of the Interior. The case points out several conflicts of interest for the President, and claims the “UFC Freedom 250” event will line the pockets of MAGA allies, like Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison and UFC CEO Dana White, and Trump himself. It goes on to claim that Trump this year purchased “up to $50,000 worth of stock in TKO, UFC’s owner.”
But the meat of the legal argument lies in the National Park Service’s usual permitting regime, which, according to the suit, rules that “no special events of any sort, including any sporting events, may be held on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial. Nor may structures be erected on the South Lawn without express authorization from Congress and a thorough environmental review.”
The lawsuit does point out that there is a temporary workaround for the permitting regime saved for “special events planned, organized, and executed by executive departments and agencies or the Semiquincentennial Commission” in observation of America’s 250th birthday. However, the case argues, that this is “a private, for-profit sporting event” that is planned by “the UFC, its broadcast partners, and its advertisers,” and not the federal government.
“And it is not in any material sense a ‘celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’—it is, instead, a celebration of the UFC’s brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump’s birth,” the suit continues. “For these reasons, UFC Freedom 250 does not satisfy the strict conditions that must be satisfied for special semiquincentennial events to occur on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial.”