Latest news with #AmericanBadAss
The Herald Scotland
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Donald Trump announces UFC event at White House for America250
"We're going to have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events. But the UFC fight is going to be a big deal, too," Trump said. Donald Trump and Dana White's friendship Trump is no stranger to the mixed martial arts scene, having attended multiple events in the past, including UFC 302 and 309. The President has been spotted on a UFC broadcast in the past sitting alongside White, including UFC 314 at Kaseya Center in Miami. Trump received a fairly positive reaction from the crowd as he walked out and toward his seat with Kid Rock's "American Bad Ass" playing. White also introduced Trump on the stage on the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention. The biggest stories, every morning. Stay up-to-date on all the key sports developments by subscribing to USA TODAY Sports' newsletter.
USA Today
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
President Donald Trump announces upcoming UFC event at White House in 2026
President Donald Trump announced that the White House will host a UFC event on July 4, 2026, in honor of America's 250th birthday. Trump was speaking to a crowd on Thursday, July 3 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds when he mentioned that Dana White and UFC will use the space available at the White House to host close to 25,000 spectators for the upcoming fight card. 'We're going to have some incredible events, some professional events, some amateur events. But the UFC fight is going to be a big deal, too,' Trump said. Donald Trump and Dana White's friendship Trump is no stranger to the mixed martial arts scene, having attended multiple events in the past, including UFC 302 and 309. The President has been spotted on a UFC broadcast in the past sitting alongside White, including UFC 314 at Kaseya Center in Miami. Trump received a fairly positive reaction from the crowd as he walked out and toward his seat with Kid Rock's "American Bad Ass" playing. White also introduced Trump on the stage on the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention. The biggest stories, every morning. Stay up-to-date on all the key sports developments by subscribing to USA TODAY Sports' newsletter.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump uses LA protests to redirect dissent from policy failures to the ‘enemy within'
Donald Trump walked out to a thunderous standing ovation as Kid Rock's American Bad Ass boomed from the sound system. He watched martial artists slug it out behind a chain-link fence. A female champion let the US president try on her gold belt. It was a night of machismo, spectacle and violence. Shortly before he joined an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night, Trump had signed an order deploying 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, where protests sparked by sweeping immigration raids led to clashes between authorities and demonstrators. Related: US national guard arrive in Los Angeles after protests over immigration raids The White House said Trump was sending in the guardsmen to 'address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester' in California. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said the move was 'purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions'. Experts said it was the first time in 60 years that a president has activated a state's national guard – a reserve military – without a request from its governor. Critics also saw it as an authoritarian flex by a strongman president who has relentlessly trampled norms and burst through guardrails. Since returning to office in January, Trump has sought to crush dissent at cultural institutions, law firms, media companies and universities. Many believed it was only a matter of time before he took the fight to the streets. The protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raids present him with an antagonist that can be used as a focal point for anger, hatred and fear, ensuring that dissent is redirected away from the government and toward 'an enemy within'. Trump is the master of distraction and, with the help of lurid rightwing media clips, wants to divert attention from policy failures and his ugly feud with Elon Musk. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, tweeted: 'Important to remember that Trump isn't trying to heal or keep the peace. He is looking to inflame and divide. His movement doesn't believe in democracy or protest – and if they get a chance to end the rule of law they will take it. None of this is on the level.' As with much else in his scorched earth second term, Trump advertised this in advance. Last October he told Fox News: 'I always say, we have two enemies. We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries.' He added: 'We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by national guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can't let that happen.' There are echoes of 2020 when Trump used national guard troops in Washington to quell Black Lives Matter protests that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. The troops fired teargas to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square near the White House to allow Trump to stage a photo-op at a church. The former defense secretary Mark Esper later revealed that Trump asked about the protesters: 'Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?' Trump and his rightwing allies have been busy rewriting the history of 2020 as a flashpoint when rioters brought carnage to US cities. Yet their narrative omits Trump's conspicuous failure to activate the national guard in response to his supporters' attempt to overturn his election defeat by laying siege to the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Cory Booker, a Democratic senator for New Jersey, told NBC's Meet the Press programme on Sunday: 'We are now at a point where we have a president who sat back and did nothing as people stormed our Capitol, viciously beat police, and then when those people – who viciously beat police and led to some of their deaths, therefore cop killers – were convicted by juries, he then pardoned them all. 'So for him to be talking to anybody right now about responsible law enforcement to protect people is hypocritical at best.' Now California – a Democrat-dominated state regularly invoked by Trump and his allies as a hive of 'wokeness' and immigration lawlessness – is the ideal target for Trump to whip up the fervor and resentments of his base. The government is deploying the national guard 'not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle', Newsom wrote on social media. 'Don't give them one.' In a sign of how much has changed from his first term, there are no Mark Espers to push back this time. Instead the current defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, threatened to involve regular military forces, writing that active-duty marines at Camp Pendleton were on high alert and would also be mobilized 'if violence continues'. And Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and architect of Trump's draconian immigration crackdown, posted messages such as 'We will take back America' and 'Insurrection' – the latter raising the spectre of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act, one of the most powerful emergency powers at the disposal of a president. The 18th-century wartime law would allow Trump to deploy the military on US soil against civilian protests, evoking parallels with autocratic regimes around the world that declare martial law. Again, the president has teed up a preview: on Saturday tanks will roll on the streets of Washington for a parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US army. It also happens to be Trump's birthday.
Evening Standard
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Donald Trump says relationship with Elon Musk over as JD Vance brands Space X boss 'so nuclear'
Mr Trump was accompanied by UFC president Dana White and the pair headed to their cage-side seats for UFC 316 to Kid Rock's track American Bad Ass. Mr Trump and Mr White did the same for UFC's card last November at Madison Square Garden - only then they were joined by Mr Musk.
08-06-2025
- Sport
Merab Dvalishvili retains his 135-pound championship at UFC 316 with President Trump looking on
NEWARK, N.J. -- Merab Dvalishvili retained his 135-pound championship when he tapped out Sean O'Malley in the third round in the main event of UFC 316 on Saturday night at the Prudential Center. Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing — though not aesthetically pleasing — unanimous decision last year over O'Malley. Dvalishvili had his number in the rematch in front of a packed crowd that included President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and bellowed toward the fans in the start of an exuberant celebration of his 13th straight MMA victory. 'I'm on top of the world!,' he said inside the cage. He was the only 135-pound champion on the card who won his bout. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison is now a UFC champion. Harrison tapped out 135-pound champion Julianna Peña with five seconds left in the second round to add another major championship in her fight career. No U.S. judoka — man or woman — had ever won an Olympic gold medal before Harrison beat Britain's Gemma Gibbons to win the women's 78-kilogram division at the 2012 London Olympics. She won gold again four years later at the Rio de Janeiro Games and made her MMA debut in 2018. The 34-year-old Harrison was a two-time $1 million prize champion in the Professional Fighters League lightweight championship division before she moved on to UFC last year. She won her first two UFC bouts and her record — now a sparkling 19-1 in MMA overall — coupled with her fame made her an instant contender for a title shot. She needed just three fights to become a champion. Harrison dropped to her knees in a teary celebration. She then called out Amanda Nunes, who retired in 2023 but said ahead of the fight she would return to the cage to fight the winner. It appears a title fight with Harrison looms in UFC. Harrison called out Nunes to enter the ring and after some encouragement from announcer Joe Rogan for security to open the cage door, she walked and the two went face-to-face. Nunes said she would indeed fight Harrison at some point for the 135-pound belt. The crowd went wild as the two engaged in a brief staredown. They had roared in delight hours earlier when Trump walked out to a thunderous standing ovation just ahead of the start of the UFC pay-per-view card. Trump was accompanied by UFC President Dana White and the pair headed to their cageside seats for UFC 316 to Kid Rock's 'American Bad Ass.' Harrison left the cage after the win and hugged Trump and posed for photos with the President and his entourage. It wasn't the only nod to Trump's latest appearance at a UFC fight. UFC fighter Kevin Holland choked out Vicente Luque to win the first fight with Trump in the building. He scaled the cage and shook hands with Trump. He briefly chatted with Trump and White before he returned for his post-fight interview. Joe Pyfer draped himself in the American flag after he defeated Kelvin Gastelum in a middleweight bout by unanimous decision. 'We've got the President of the United States! We've got Mike Tyson,' Pyfer bellowed inside the cage.
