WH Attacks Washington Post Report On Handing Over Press Credentialing For UFC Event

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

The Trump White House is disputing a Washington Post report that Dana White’s UFC will handle all press credentialing for the upcoming Freedom250 mixed martial arts fights on the south lawn.

WaPo media reporter Scott Nover wrote in a Tuesday article that “The White House is ceding control of who gets into the fight event on the South Lawn, in a break with tradition.”

Nover cited an email sent out by the White House Correspondents’ Association stating, “The White House press corps won’t be allowed on White House grounds Sunday” because of the event.

The article stated:

Weijia Jiang, the association’s president, told members in an email that only the White House press poolers — the designated journalists who follow the president on behalf of various news outlets when he is in locations that cannot accommodate a larger group — will be allowed on White House grounds unless UFC gives them press credentials.

“The WHCA has been pushing back on this, but we have been told there will be various Secret Service access points across campus and that the [White House North Lawn] is being used as a staging area for the fighters and UFC filming zone, and the [White House] is standing firm,” Jiang wrote.

Nover added, “While the White House normally handles credentialing for large-scale events, it’s ceding control of Sunday’s bash to UFC.”

White House assistant press secretary Olivia Wales denounced the reporting in a post to X as “fake news.”

“The White House Press Office has credentialed a press pool of 35 members for this historic event on Sunday – expanded from the normal press pool of 21 members,” Wales wrote. “The pool will be providing full coverage on the South Lawn for the duration of UFC Freedom250.”

The June 14 event in honor of President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, as well as America’s 250th, is said to be costing White some $60 million to produce. However, the event is facing a legal challenge brought by two Virginia residents who argued it “violated National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands.”

The judge in the case has ordered the Department of Justice to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday.

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