In a video posted to his official Tiktok account on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump suggested he may never remove the enormous UFC arena that’s being constructed on the White House lawn for his birthday celebrations. He also compared it to the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris, also initially meant to be temporary, but was kept on, though his take on the Eiffel Tower isn’t quite accurate.
“Maybe we’ll never ever take it down,” said Donald Trump in the video posted to his Tiktok account. “People don’t know that in Paris, France, the Eiffel Tower, 1889 it was built. It was supposed to be taken down immediately after the world’s fair, and then they said: ‘leave it up a little bit longer, and then they said, ‘let’s leave it up longer and longer and longer,” he said.
His take on the Eiffel Tower isn’t quite accurate. Whilst it was initially commissioned to be a temporary structure for the 1889 Paris Exposition, it wasn’t as he said, supposed to be taken down “immediately after.” The structure had a permit of 20 years to remain, before it was kept on due to its strategic value in scientific experiments and radio telegraphy.
For around a week, the massive open-air metal structure – bigger than the White House itself – has been constructed on the South Lawn on the White House for the upcoming “UFC FREEDOM 250.” The date is set for June 14th, Trump’s 80th birthday, though the event it also set to celebrate the USA’s 250th anniversary.
Trump has been seen frequenting UFC events often in recent years, and has a longtime friendship with the CEO of the mixed martial arts organisation Dana White. It’s not clear if he’s joking or not about keeping the UFC structure, or if it’s to provoke his critics online, a social media strategy often used by his Administration.
Social media users reacted negatively, saying Trump was “ruining” a historical and iconic American building. Others pointed out that last year he signed the “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again” executive order to protect federal buildings’ classical architecture. Many were frustrated at the UFC cage, saying Trump is “doing nothing to address rising healthcare costs, energy bills, or deliver on any of the promises he made to get himself elected.”
A permanent UFC arena could be the latest of his plans to put his own stamp on the White House…there’s course there’s his controversial 90,000 square foot ballroom project, as well as his renovations to the White House Rose Garden lawn, and the gold ‘gildification’ of the Oval Office.
Vedika Bahl goes through Trump’s latest video, the reactions, and his other White House alterations in Truth or Fake.
