{"id":1960,"date":"2026-06-13T19:07:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T19:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1960"},"modified":"2026-06-13T19:07:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T19:07:05","slug":"leftists-throw-a-tantrum-over-white-house-ufc-bout-but-thats-not-their-real-gripe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1960","title":{"rendered":"Leftists throw a tantrum over White House UFC bout \u2014 but that’s not their real gripe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Last week, when I was honored to attend a dinner in the White House Rose Garden, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino gestured beyond the starry-eyed guests toward the massive arched dome that was rising above the South Lawn.<\/p>\n

Read more Exclusive | Victor Wembanyama had Knicks fan kicked out of $20,000 Ritz-Carlton penthouse he booked next to him<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUFC next week, that\u2019s pretty awesome,\u201d he joked about Sunday\u2019s spectacle celebrating both the nation\u2019s 250th birthday and President Donald Trump\u2019s 80th.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s thinking about keeping that. I\u2019m sure no heads will explode on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone laughed.<\/p>\n

Outside the White House, though, plenty of hair was already on fire.<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton raged on X, \u201cThis is what Trump\u2019s done to the People\u2019s House: a third of it is rubble, another third is a cage match. What a metaphor.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s next? Cockfighting? Dogfighting?\u201d spluttered Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). \u201cIt\u2019s such a sacrilege to the White House and to our nation\u2019s capital.\u201d<\/p>\n

A leftist nonprofit even filed a lawsuit to block the proceedings, characterizing them as \u201cfundamentally\u201d a \u201ccorrupt use of our most sacred national monuments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I sat there that evening, surrounded by centuries of American history, I couldn\u2019t help but contemplate the striking contrast.<\/p>\n

The White House on one side; an octagon on the other.<\/p>\n

To many in the political and cultural establishment, it apparently feels like an invasion.<\/p>\n

To me, it felt uniquely American.<\/p>\n

This controversy isn\u2019t about mixed martial arts, but about who gets to decide what counts as American culture.<\/p>\n

Notice that few critics are debating security, logistics or cost.<\/p>\n

Their real objection is something else entirely \u2014 taste, and who gets to define it.<\/p>\n

For decades, a relatively small group of gatekeepers decided what counted as respectable and acceptable in American culture.<\/p>\n

They chose the celebrities and the entertainers.<\/p>\n

They chose which athletes deserved admiration, and which should be dismissed as unworthy of serious attention.<\/p>\n

And they determined whose tastes mattered: theirs.<\/p>\n

For much of the 20th century, that system worked \u2014 enforced by three TV networks, a handful of newspapers and a smattering of Hollywood studios and record labels.<\/p>\n

But now the audience has seized the remote control.<\/p>\n

A podcaster today can command a larger audience than a network anchor.<\/p>\n

A UFC champion can have greater cultural reach than a movie star.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re getting information, entertainment and inspiration from sources the traditional gatekeepers neither control nor fully understand.<\/p>\n

President Trump recognized the shift long before most politicians did.<\/p>\n

While others sought validation from Hollywood and established institutions, Trump built relationships with entrepreneurs, athletes, podcasters and personalities who speak directly to millions of Americans.<\/p>\n

Read more The DSA is exploiting Mamdani\u2019s mayoralty for a stealth revolution<\/a><\/p>\n

The result is that many Americans look at a UFC fight card on the White House lawn and think, \u201cThat sounds like fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cultural establishment looks at the same event and sees a crisis.<\/p>\n

That disconnect tells us far more about the establishment than it does about the UFC.<\/p>\n

After all, presidents have long blended politics with popular culture.<\/p>\n

John F. Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe sing him a birthday song.<\/p>\n

Ronald Reagan celebrated with Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama\u2019s White House invited performers from Aretha Franklin to Kendrick Lamar to the cast of \u201cHamilton\u201d in to serenade him.<\/p>\n

One of the most famous photographs in presidential history isn\u2019t of a summit or a treaty signing: It\u2019s Richard Nixon shaking hands with Elvis Presley in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

At the time, many considered the pairing unusual \u2014 \u00a0yet no one suggested their meeting put the republic in danger.<\/p>\n

The difference isn\u2019t the spectacle, but the audience.<\/p>\n

Those now objecting so vociferously were perfectly comfortable when America\u2019s cultural institutions reflected their<\/em> preferences and values.<\/p>\n

What unsettles them is realizing that millions of Americans no longer take their edicts into account.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why this event feels to them so threatening: Not because it\u2019s unprecedented or inappropriate, but because it\u2019s popular.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve found themselves shut out of a culture they no longer understand, and all they can think to do is vainly demand that everyone else return to their rules.<\/p>\n

For weeks, critics have treated the UFC\u2019s arrival in Washington as though barbarians were gathering at the gates.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

But perhaps they have it backward.<\/p>\n

The fighters aren\u2019t the invaders besieging the citadel.<\/p>\n

Neither are the fans who follow them, or the millions of Americans who will tune in to enjoy the show.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the elites who still believe they get to decide what counts as culture that are on the outside, looking in.<\/p>\n

Alan Rechtschaffen is a trustee of the Wilson Center and author of \u201cCapital Markets, Derivatives and the Law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Trump says Iran \u2018no longer\u2019 wants a nuke in deal that could be signed Sunday<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The controversy over Trump’s White House UFC card isn\u2019t about mixed martial arts, but about who gets to decide what counts as American culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nLeftists throw a tantrum over White House UFC bout \u2014 but that's not their real gripe - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=1960\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leftists throw a tantrum over White House UFC bout \u2014 but that's not their real gripe - 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