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The top super PAC backed by President Donald Trump is set to hold a $1 million-per-person fundraiser Saturday, the day before he hosts Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on the White House grounds.
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The seven-figure fundraising event will take place at Trump’s golf club in the Washington suburbs, in Northern Virginia, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Money raised at the fundraiser will benefit MAGA Inc., which has collected $342 million this election cycle and is expected to play a major role in key races in the upcoming midterm congressional elections.
People familiar with the UFC matches and the fundraiser said they are independent of each other. But a person who has a ticket to the UFC event and plans to attend the fundraiser said that while the two events are separate, “I certainly do not think the timing is coincidence,” in that some of Trump’s well-heeled supporters may go to both.
Tickets for the UFC matches are free, though NBC News reported last month that sponsorship packages, including cageside seats, have been selling for $1 million or more. A person close to the company said that the sponsorship revenue will “help offset UFC’s cost to put on the event” and that none of the money will go to Trump or to his political or private business interests.
The UFC event — which will be held on Trump’s 80th birthday — is part of the White House-planned activities to honor the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump has a long-running relationship with the UFC and is close to its president and CEO, Dana White. Trump has attended three UFC matches since his second term began; he went to two other UFC events during his 2024 campaign.
White has been a loyal political supporter, speaking in support of Trump at past Republican presidential conventions.
In public appearances, Trump has showcased the upcoming event on the White House South Lawn. On Saturday night, the fighters will take part in a ceremonial weigh-in event on the Ellipse, just south of the White House. The Zac Brown Band, a country music group, is then scheduled to perform. On Sunday, the fights are set to begin at 8 p.m. ET and end after midnight.
“We are building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people,” Trump told reporters last week of the 92-foot-tall, 600-ton fighting ring specially constructed for the event.
The spectacle now faces a legal challenge.
A lawsuit filed Saturday by the Public Integrity Project seeks to block the event, because, it says, it improperly uses the White House grounds for a “for-profit” event and will make money for a private company, the UFC.
“This plan is deeply corrupt,” the lawsuit reads. “The event, billed as ‘UFC Freedom 250,’ is (as the name suggests) being organized by the UFC, whose chief executive, Dana White, is a close friend and ally of the President.”
“The event will likely be profitable for the UFC and its partners,” the lawsuit alleges.
The White House told NBC News it believes the lawsuit is “obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory.”
On an earnings call last month, Mark Shapiro, president and chief operating officer of UFC’s parent company, TKO Holdings, said the company expects to lose as much as $30 million on the matches and other festivities in Washington.
The fundraiser is at least the sixth such $1 million-per-person event held by Trump-aligned groups for the midterm elections.
Republicans at nearly all levels hold a significant midterm cash advantage over Democrats, who expect to be outpaced financially in many key House and Senate races.
A major exception is the Senate race in Texas, where the Trump-endorsed state attorney general, Ken Paxton, last month knocked off Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the primary. Cornyn has a vast fundraising network and would likely have been able to raise much of his own money and keep pressure off national GOP groups.
Paxton, who is taking on Democrat James Talarico, is expected to need much more financial help — a void MAGA Inc. is expected to play a big part in filling.
