Donald Trump had his tacky birthday party on the White House lawn yesterday. A bunch of people I never heard of had fights in front of a crowd of rich people who did not get rained on, unfortunately, but they did manage to demonstrate how low-class they were.
Yet if the event was intended as a celebration of American strength and exceptionalism, it also repeatedly descended into something cruder. The most striking example came after prospect Josh Hokit stopped Derrick Lewis in the second round of their heavyweight bout. After exiting the cage to present Trump with a necklace at ringside, Hokit delivered a rambling post-fight interview that veered from praise for the president to religion before concluding with the false conspiracy claim that “Michelle Obama is a man.”
The remark, one of the oldest and most persistent smears directed at the former first lady, drew cheers from some sections of the crowd and bewilderment from others. Even on a night that had already blurred the line between civic ceremony, political rally and pay-per-view entertainment, Hokit still found a way to lower the level of discourse.
Hokit’s comments were not the evening’s only political barb. When former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley faced Canada’s Aiemann Zahabi, the bout took on a nationalistic fervor. Trump donned a white “USA” hat cageside while chants of “U-S-A!” rang out from sections of the crowd. At various points spectators shouted “Canada is the 51st state!” – echoing Trump’s repeated taunts about annexing America’s northern neighbor – while others urged O’Malley to “eat” his opponent.
He got the party he wanted, but not the party he deserved.
Please, make these people go away.
I actually saw one of the fights last night because Sportsnet up here played it, even though the actual fighting was supposed to be aired up here on the Sportsnet+ streaming service up here. Both fighters were Americans, but towards the end of short lived fight some people were chanting “USA! USA!” Go figure.
I watched about 5 minutes all told of the couple of hours of yakking beforehand. Jon Anik, one of the UFC talking heads, read at one point off of some plaque in the White House hoping no crooks would ever hold the office of President. It was too late a long, long time before he was born, but I still rolled my eyes at him saying that with Trump in office.
Joe Rogan is starting to look very weird. Been taking too much HGH according to one person I saw online.
I had seen a segment of Rogan criticizing the event beforehand, something about not being in a controlled environment at a set temperature amongst other things. But then there he is at said event holding a microphone, wearing an absurdly short tie, and looking like a Macy’s Thanksgiving parade balloon character.
With the money he now has Rogan could tell Dana White to shove it if he really had any guts. And White would probably back down because Rogan has been associated with the UFC so long.
@timgueguen HGH: hippo growth hormone?
I had heard rain and thunderstorms were about to hit DC so I celebrated prematurely.
It would have served him right if the skies had opened over the White House .
The earth should open up under the White House and swallow them all up.
@ ^ birgerjohansson : Yet more proof there really is NO god. Also Trump not having been hit by lightning yet.
Hey, Bothsiderist, anti-Democratic party mob, anyone think this ugly shitshow spewing hate outside and inside the ruins of the White House would be happening if Kamala was POTUS? Or if Bien was POTUS or any democratci party candidate was POTUS. No. It clearly wouldn’t be.
The lie that the two USoA political parties are remotely the same thereby disproven yet a-fucking-gain.
This makes me think of frat boys. And why I was disinclined to join a fraternity during college.