Trump Says White House UFC Arena Construction Will Begin Next Week

President Donald Trump said to reporters on Friday that construction will begin “over the next week” on a temporary arena on the White House South Lawn to host a planned UFC event in June.

Appearing outside of the White House, Trump answered a question on the event, scheduled for June 14 to mark both his birthday and the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“You’re gonna be hosting the first-ever UFC fight at the White House in 45 days, sir,” said an unpictured reporter. “Can you preview the event? Can you talk about the card and what does it mean…?”

“They have some of the greatest champions in the world,” said Trump. “The arena — they’re gonna start building it over the next week.”

“It’s right here,” he added, gesturing to the South Lawn behind him. “It’ll be about 5,000 seats. They’ll have 100,000 people down by the Ellipse with screens, and it’s all free. It’s gonna be great.”

The event will feature seven fights, headlined by Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje.

Notably, in the past months, podcaster and longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan has spoken critically of the event. “Yeah, I’ll be there, but I’m not thrilled about it,” Rogan said on the March 20 edition of his show. “Doesn’t seem like a wise idea.”

On a March 16 episode, despite admitting he was “excited,” Rogan also said, “It sounds crazy, I know it’s going to be very high security, and high stress, and weird to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a f*cking war… [I] would hope the war will be sorted out by June. But quite honestly, I’m not confident that’s going to be the case. So, that would be weird. Having this very high-profile event where everybody’s in one place at one time, right there.”

Watch Trump’s announcement above via Fox News.

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