President-elect Donald Trump is attending the UFC heavyweight championship conflict at Madison Sq. Backyard on Saturday night time, combining two issues near his coronary heart: fierce battles contained in the octagon and New York Metropolis.
After a yr delay, Stipe Miocic is getting his shot at a 3rd heavyweight championship reign when he battles present champion Jon Jones at UFC 309.
Trump is a longtime UFC fanatic and frequent attendee of main fights. He made promoting hypermasculine tones a signature of his newest, profitable marketing campaign for the White Home — as he appeared to additional widen the hole amongst male voters between himself and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The journey to New York, the place Trump lived for many years earlier than shifting to his Mar-a-Lago membership in Palm Seaside, Florida, got here after the president-elect announced his choice for energy secretary in his upcoming administration.
And it additionally adopted a key ally, billionaire Elon Musk, calling for extra direct public enter into the decision-making course of for one more prime put up Trump remains to be mulling, the top of his new administration’s Treasury Division.
Trump stated that Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Vitality, was his choice to go the Vitality Division. Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and fuel improvement, together with fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to realize U.S. “vitality dominance” within the international market.
Musk, in the meantime, mused concerning the president-elect’s yet-to-be-made treasury secretary selection — and invited folks to make use of his social platform to weigh in.
“Can be fascinating to listen to extra folks weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to think about suggestions,” Musk, who Trump has already tapped to co-lead a fee tasked with increasing government spending efficiency, posted Saturday on the X social media platform he owns.
Musk used the remainder of his put up to turn into the primary participant within the public ballot he was proposing. He endorsed Howard Lutnick, the CEO of economic companies agency Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of Trump’s transition team, forward of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2025, over hedge fund supervisor Scott Bessent.
Musk stated in his put up that “Bessent is a business-as-usual selection, whereas @howardlutnick will really enact change.”
“Enterprise-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we’d like change,” he stated.
Each Lutnick and Bessent have been talked about as potential picks to guide the Treasury Division. Bessent is taken into account the extra standard, business-friendly selection. He’s skeptical about cryptocurrency, whereas Lutnick has instructed it might be used for folks to pay their taxes.
Trump’s decide to guide his Well being and Human Providers Division, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., additionally endorsed Lutnick, posting on his personal X account, “Bitcoin is the foreign money of freedom, a hedge towards inflation for center class Individuals.”
“Bitcoin could have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnik,” he wrote, misspelling Lutnick’s final title.
Trump has already introduced many picks for the brand new administration in current days, together with his selection for Secretary of State, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and lawyer normal, former Florida Rep . Matt Gaetz. Treasury is a very powerful slot he has left to fill, however the president-elect additionally has but to announce decisions for different roles, together with the heads of the Schooling and Labor Departments.
Individually, Trump stated that he’d picked a member of his authorized group and former federal prosecutor, Will Scharf, as assistant to the president and White Home workers secretary. Additionally Saturday, Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson was at Mar-a-Lago to satisfy with the president-elect earlier than Trump flew to New York for the UFC showdown.
Apart from a day journey to Washington this week to satisfy for almost two hours with President Joe Biden, and individually tackle Home Republicans, Trump has been spending his time since his Election Day victory at Mar-a-Lago. The membership has hosted galas and conservative occasions all through the week.
Trump’s love for UFC
Along with being a fan of the game, the president-elect has been near Final Preventing Championship President Dana White for greater than 20 years.
White hosted a 2001 UFC battle at Trump Taj Mahal, a former casino-hotel in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, and Trump has often attended UFC matches since – together with throughout his 2024 marketing campaign. Trump has turned up at fights lately with well-known entourages, together with White, musician Child Rock and former Fox Information Channel host Tucker Carlson.
In 2018, throughout Trump’s first time period, he and White starred in a UFC video the place the then-president was known as the “Combatant In Chief.”
As Trump has strengthened his grip on the nationwide Republican Occasion over the past near-decade, White’s private political profile has grown exponentially. White spoke on the 2016 and 2020 Republican conventions, and when the party gathered in Milwaukee this previous July. He additionally addressed the group at Trump’s Florida victory occasion within the wee hours of the morning after Election Day.
“That is what occurs when the machine comes after you,” White stated then. “What you’ve seen over the past a number of years, that is what it seems like: couldn’t cease him. He retains going ahead. He doesn’t stop.”
