On Sunday night, Donald Trump hosted the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House. It was just as stupid, tacky and gross as everyone expected. The only silver lining is that very few people were actually paying attention. It fell on the same weekend as all of these things: the Knicks clinching the NBA Championship; the middle of baseball season; the opening week of the World Cup; the Stanley Cup final, and like five other major things. Most people only learned of UFC champion Josh Hokit’s moronic statements until the next day. On Sunday night, Hokit won a fight and then he said to the sparse crowd, “Michelle Obama is a man, am I right, America?” It was vile. Josh Hokit is vile. Well, UFC boss Dana White knows that all of this actually hurts the brand. White made the extraordinary step of walking back Hokit’s statement. Meanwhile, the White House still hasn’t done the same.
UFC boss Dana White spoken out against against Josh Hokit after the fighter made disparaging and false remarks about Michelle Obama during the White House’s UFC Freedom 250 event.
“I understand that the Obamas are public figures but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families,” White wrote Time magazine in a text message. “Everyone knows my position on free speech but I hate that kind of nonsense.”
After winning his heavyweight fight against Derrick Lewis on the White House lawn, Hokit was interviewed on the Paramount+ livestream by Joe Rogan. Unexpectedly, Hokit shouted into the microphone, “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?,” drawing cheers and screams from the live audience. The incendiary remarks were roundly criticized on social media but went unaddressed throughout the remainder of the broadcast. Rogan appeared flustered and backed away from the fighter, only saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, Josh Hokit.”
White House spokesman Steven Cheung dodged a question about Hokit’s comment, saying, “He had a great win last night. He showed toughness and the ability to pressure his opponent both on his feet and on the ground,” according to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
The bloody spectacle — a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary that also happened to land on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday — was otherwise largely avoidant of partisan politics. UFC athletes (both from the U.S. and other countries) walked out the White House and into the octagon, with Trump, the First Lady Melania and UFC CEO Dana White sitting cageside. The fighters marched alongside U.S. veterans and first responders as people dressed as Revolutionary War soldiers stood guard. The Zac Brown Band performed the national anthem.
The whole thing is just… ugh. How far we’ve fallen. Culturally, politically. The crassness at every level, spurred on by Donald Trump. When Dana White sounds more politically astute than literally anyone in the White House, it’s a huge problem for our country. White also said, in a press conference on Monday, that he’ll never do any of this again – he’ll never stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, screencap courtesy of Paramount+ and social media.
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- Washington, DC President Donald J Trump and UFC president and CEO Dana White are seen during the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington DC. Pictured: Donald Trump, Dana White BACKGRID USA 14 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC President Donald J Trump and UFC president and CEO Dana White are seen during the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington DC. Pictured: Donald Trump, Dana White BACKGRID USA 14 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC President Donald J Trump and UFC president and CEO Dana White are seen during the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington DC. Pictured: UFC Freedom 250 BACKGRID USA 14 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. President Trump is hosting a series of Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on his 80th birthday, which the White House is calling “a once-in-a-generation celebration of the American fighting spirit.” Pictured: Trump BACKGRID USA 15 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. President Trump is hosting a series of Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on his 80th birthday, which the White House is calling “a once-in-a-generation celebration of the American fighting spirit.” Pictured: Trump BACKGRID USA 15 JUNE 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Apologies from any of these people are meaningless and should be waved away like an annoying gnat.
A lot of Trump’s recent focus on bashing Obama is because he’s butthurt that he’s the only living President who wasn’t invited to the Obama Presidential Center opening on Juneteenth. I saw that MS Now will be doing a lot of coverage of the opening which I fully support. Anything to take attention away from the Diaper-Shitter-In-Chief and to remind him that nobody fucking likes him.
Good god, is anyone even surprised anymore?
Trump and everyone who associates with him are such human shit stains. I wonder if our country will ever feel clean and good again.
Well I am a *little* surprised that any of them are making [minimal] effort to back away from it instead of doubling down on it as usual. Someone should ask Orange Mussolini why he defends Brigitte Macron from the same sort of vile attacks but not Michelle Obama (I’ll give you one guess).
There’s video of Dana hitting his wife. His excuse is that they were both drunk, so of course Harvey Levin invited him on TMZ to explain himself🙄Everything about this “administration” is disgusting. I can only hope we crawl out of this cesspool this hunched p.o.s put us in.
Imagine how offensive Hokits was that even Dana was disgusted.
Dana has to protect the brand. I don’t think he cares that Hokits said what he did.
Yes, this is about brand protection, which is interesting to me, because I would think that type of comment would be what most UFC fans want to hear and agree with. But apparently White doesn’t think so. (or they’re trying to reach new fans, in which case…..a cage match on the WH lawn was probably not the best way to do that if the fans you’re trying to reach aren’t MAGA.)
This guy punched his wife. Pass.
More than Nate Bargatze has said about his attendance
I was just starting to tire of Nate a bit, and i used to LOVE him. This seals it I guess.
These people are horrific sh!t stains, all of them.
The grifting fact that a subscription to Paramount+ was required in order to view this sh*tshow says it all. Altho I can’t stand the Ellisons, i still have P+ and Showtime, but I didn’t even know this bs was on. I later found out that the Felon not only advertised his crypto coin and other problematic and likely illegal ads with conflicts of interest during this event, he also owns stock in P+ and prob in the UFC as well. Which explains the P+ paywall. I wonder if like the Felon, viewers also fell asleep “watching” this bs. MAGA actually mocked the weather forecasts as fake newz, only for it to actually rain as predicted. I love this for them. Will they ever tire of being this damn stupid? Dana White is cunning enough to understand the importance of protecting his brand while still catering to the MAGA morons.
MAGA really thinks they’re doing something by constantly insulting and questioning the gender of our forever First Lady, Michelle Obama. Which makes me ask, are they jealous of her obvious intelligence, poise, grace, class, and accomplishments? That she married our forever handsome, brilliant and beloved former Prez Obama and doesn’t swat his hand away or look disgusted whenever he tries to hold it? That the Obamas are Harvard Law School Alums who are also self made millionaires, so they aren’t and won’t be living in the “ghetto”, like they assume and dream all Black Americans are/should be? Or that she, like many Black Americans, refuses to diminish herself for them, tolerate their r@cist bs, or grovel and dance for MAGA for tiny crumbs of acceptance, like Black MAGA ignorantly does? Or all of the above? The fact that the Obamas are still popular and beloved by many people across the globe and political spectrums also endlessly triggers MAGA, which i love to see. And stupidly, all MAGA is doing is constantly reminding Americans that the forever absent former nude model/current First Lady doesn’t compete nor compare with any of our former First Ladies, but esp not against Michelle. We also haven’t forgotten how frequently the Epstein linked, mysterious Einstein Visa having, birther lie spreading, hateful and r@cist Melania T shamelessly and repeatedly plagiarized/colonized parts of speeches that the always brilliant Mrs. Obama had previously given publicly as First Lady.
Dana…..thats his name!?
It’s mid-June. Right now the White House should be celebrating Pride month, honoring LGBTQ+ every day. At the same time, they should be prepping for a big musical event on the lawn for Juneteenth on Friday. Instead, they’re doing this 💩. Will we ever see normal again? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From the outside looking in, this is such a shitshow. It looks like a cesspool of hillbillies parked their F-150s on the White House lawn and just took it over. A real Imma protest till I got the right to marry my sister coup because raisins in potato salad Murica!!!
White is only apologizing because he understands that’s what it looks like when they say out in public what they say amongst themselves every day. They are all absolute garbage. And I’m sorry I was always taught not to look down on others but this is some real trash right here – the administration, the fighters, the attendees. There’s even a video of fights breaking out in the audience.
America has become an absolute joke under this administration. It was already not a functioning democracy built on the backs of slaves, and now it’s just descended into complete fuckery that even politically unstable countries point and laugh at, Nelson Muntz style.
Great job MAGA.
And hopefully White got a real good whiff of Shitler’s soiled diaper.