Polls indicate that President Donald Trump is doing a lot that most Americans don’t support: The war with Iran; the arbitrary tariffs; the retribution campaign against his perceived enemies; the 250-foot Triumphal Arch; the $1.776 billion fund intended to reward Trump loyalists. (Even Republicans don’t like that one!)

There’s so much that it’s hard to know what’s important. In the middle of a war against Iran, does it really matter if Trump’s vanity leads him to appropriate top billing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts?

Still, it’s hard to predict the consequences of acts that seem trivial at the time. Consider the Ultimate Fighting Championship cage fights that Trump is sponsoring on the White House lawn on June 14 as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration. June 14 also happens to be Trump’s 80th birthday.

It’s not clear why any sport needs to be part of the celebration of our country’s nativity, but if we’re going to stage a sporting event on the White House lawn, why UFC?

Trump, of course, is pals with Dana White, the president and CEO of UFC. White, in turn, is an outspoken supporter of Trump and has donated at least a million dollars to Trump’s campaigns for the presidency. A cynic might say that a valuable UFC gig is just payback for services rendered. In other words, business as usual under Trump.

But I suspect there’s more to it: A cage match at the White House suits Trump’s personal tastes in sport, which tend to favor violence and “manliness.” He’s a big fan of boxing, wrestling and UFC, and he complained bitterly when the NFL modified its kickoff rules in order to reduce injuries. Trump called the new kickoffs “sissy” football.

But there’s nothing “sissy” about UFC. In fact, if you’re unfamiliar with mixed martial arts and are imagining a UFC bout as a harmless athletic contest, consider watching a few UFC fights on YouTube.

Boxing may be The Sweet Science, but UFC combat is pre-science, the original, primitive blood sport, no more complicated than two men inflicting as much damage as possible on each other without much in the way of rules to get in the way. Blood flows copiously from the fighters’ noses and mouths and from cuts around their eyes. Human blood bespatters the canvas at their feet.

UFC bouts are scored similarly to boxing, but the Holy Grail is the knockout, which, by definition, is an injury to the brain, temporary or permanent. The knockout cannot be separated from the effort to injure one’s opponent. Watch a half-hour compilation of UFC knockouts and you’re unlikely to retain any illusions about the damage UFC does to its fighters.

Still, if two citizens, of their own free will, want to beat each other up, and other citizens want to pay to watch them, I’m reluctant to say they shouldn’t have that right.

But what does it say about America if we’re showcasing a bloody and dangerous battle between aggressive opponents to help celebrate the birth of our nation—and of Trump?

Podcaster Joe Rogan says, “There’s no more American thing than having a UFC fight on the White House lawn. It’s so America. It’s so Trump. It’s so crazy.”

Certainly, a UFC fight is “so Trump,” but is it “so America”? A YouGov survey indicates that only 17 percent of Americans approve of the bouts at the White House; the rest disapprove, are unsure or have no opinion.

Further, of the 12 fighters currently scheduled for June 14, only half were born in the U.S., and only five appear to be white. The rest appear to be brown-skinned. And no women. Too DEI, maybe.

Autocrats love to celebrate grand occasions—such as their birthdays—with spectacle and entertainment. Thus, on June 14, we’ll have a president who is fond of violence—especially other people’s—presiding over brutal cage fights among, mostly, brown-skinned men and immigrants. Certainly, this is consistent with Trump’s image of America. But is it really who we really are?

Let’s hope not.

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