Turns out throwing yourself a birthday party at the White House isn't cheap — especially when you rope a major sports promotion into footing the bill. The UFC lost roughly $30 million putting on Trump's "Freedom 250" bash back in June, the fight card Dana White staged on the South Lawn to mark the President's 80th birthday.
About 4,300 people packed onto the lawn itself, with a much bigger overflow crowd watching from the Ellipse, all to see Justin Gaethje beat Ilia Topuria in the main event. TKO's CFO copped to the loss on an investor call this week alone, blaming it on the event's "profile" and admitting it dented margins across the board — though he insisted the company saw it coming.
The spin, naturally, is that it was worth it. UFC brass told investors the spectacle was a "roaring success" that'll pay off down the line, pointing to 25 new marketing partnerships and about $1 billion in earned media. Paramount — owned by Trump megadonor Larry Ellison — says 34 million people tuned in to watch. The initial price tag was actually projected at $60 million before sponsorships knocked it down.
“With regards to UFC Freedom 250, we incurred significantly higher than normal costs, which we partially offset with sold-out global partnerships inventory,” TKO chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer said, according to MMA Fighting.
Not mentioned in TKO's rosy framing: the event turned into fodder for a Democratic staff report titled "From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday," which argued Trump hijacked what was supposed to be a nonpartisan 250th-anniversary celebration for his own vanity project. The UFC covered all the costs itself, essentially, aside from the federal agents assigned to work the event.
In addition to the $30 million loss, they'll also never get the Trump stink off of them.
