I visited Donald Trump’s White House UFC arena – it’s terrifying

The president of the United States, we all seemed to realise together, is really going to do it. He’s really going to go ahead with this blood-spattered cage match on his 80^th birthday, with the Iran war unresolved and the US economy wobbling. 

As with so many things that Trump has done since his return to power, it’s hard to know where to start with The Claw. But let’s begin with the fact that it looks absolutely terrifying.

Turning the corner from the relative tranquillity of Trump’s (paved over) Rose Garden, it suddenly loomed in front of us, like a cross between one of the extraterrestrial machines from the “War of the Worlds” and the “Mindflayer” beast from Stranger Things. You could imagine it demanding to be brought to the Leader of the Earthlings – a title Trump would no doubt be happy to accept.

The sheer scale of The Claw is breathtaking. A towering combat arena made of six hundred tons of steel, it is 92 feet high and 154 feet wide, making it 22 feet higher than the White House itself. That doesn’t quite do justice to the way it dwarfs the revered home of the American presidency, which appears to peek out timidly from between its metal legs. 

The event is costing the UFC $60m to stage – an amount the White House says involves no public funds – but the mixed martial arts business is certainly getting its money’s worth.

Suggested Reading

The White House UFC fight will have one loser: Trump

Matthew d’Ancona

Beneath the arched roof, full of lights and wiring, lies the ring where Trump’s evening of blood sport will play out. Called the Octagon, the eight-sided ring is surrounded by wire mesh.

In the best American tradition, the names of big-paying sponsors are proudly emblazoned on almost every part of the cage, from Bud Light beer, to Toyo Tires and Polymarket – the prediction market where Trump’s son Don Jr. serves as an advisor.

The dozens of journalists allowed in for the preview on a hot and sweaty Washington morning appeared almost awed at first. But with the White House giving us a time slot of just half an hour, reality quickly kicked in and the usual Trump-inspired circus began, with reporters taking selfie-videos in front of the gigantic “UFC Freedom 250” logo.

Hanging around the edge of the ring I spotted Jack Posobiec, the conservative influencer behind the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that falsely accused Democrats of being paedophiles, and who has recently weighed in on the Belfast riots. Posobiec said later that he climbed into the Octagon before an official asked him to get down. “If I see an Octagon, I’m going into the Octagon,” he boasted.

The front seats where Trump and his star guests will sit are around 15 feet away from the fencing – presumably just out of range of any flying blood, sweat and teeth. In total there are around 4,000 black folding chairs at various levels, each with a black sticker on the back saying “Warning: Please do not stand on chair.”

Baying spectators clambering onto their seats is a far cry from the scenes the South Lawn has witnessed in years past. It was here that Bill Clinton hosted the Oslo Accords ceremony in 1993, and here too that disgraced Richard Nixon flashed his famous V-sign on the steps of the Marine One helicopter before it soared off over the famed White House fountain.

Climbing up to the top row of the seats at the back of The Claw, I could see that same fountain was now flanked by two cavernous UFC-branded hospitality tents.

Beyond that, an enormous screen has been set up on the Ellipse, the green space just outside the White House, where Trump riled the crowds before the January 6 Capitol Riots. Now he says he expects more than 125,000 people to watch the cage match here. The Washington Monument sits in the background, and one can only wonder what America’s first president would have thought of it all.

Suggested Reading

So you want to put Donald Trump on trial? Sorry – there’s a catch

Nicky Woolf

As I took a photo of the site of Trump’s $400m White House ballroom next to The Claw, a Secret Service agent approached and ordered me to delete the pictures. Fellow reporters told me they had been ushered away from other areas near the top of the arena.

And then, suddenly, it was all over. A polo-shirted UFC staffer told us to leave, before White House staff ushered us away.

We had hoped that Trump himself might come out and show us around. Instead the president was somewhere inside the White House, firing off a social media post threatening to take Iran’s oil facilities. But Trump’s imprint is all over The Claw. It’s almost too perfect a symbol of his macho, divided America.

“Peace for the world,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday when a reporter asked what he wanted for his 80^th birthday. What he actually wants, it seems, is to see 14 bare-chested men beating each other to a pulp.

After our trip to The Claw, the conversation in the press room turned to what Trump himself would do on his big night.

“He’s gotta get in the Octagon,” said one photographer. “Maybe he’ll fight ‘em,” joked another.

The thing is, with Donald Trump, you just never know.