Were you not entertained by the human cockfight staged on the South Lawn of the White House last weekend? Blood and guts were the coin of the realm in Washington’s Ultimate Fighting Championship extravaganza held to celebrate President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and, supposedly, the 250th birthday of the United States of America.
I suspect the nation’s founders would have been unamused by Trump’s idea of a celebration worthy of the blood sacrificed for the highest prize — freedom. If the term “toxic masculinity” were in search of an illustration, Trump gleefully provided it.
With fighters, politicians, billionaires, military performers and about 4,000 spectators, the nation’s capital was for several hours a 250-year testosterone-flood event. Even the scantily clad Octagon girls were about to sprout mustaches by the end of the more than $60 million show.
Yes, some women enjoy the sport, and some are fighters, too, though none competed on Sunday. Though it’s difficult to estimate the number of women who attended the White House fight fest, some notables stood out, including first lady Melania Trump; Ivanka Trump, who posted that the evening was “epic”; and, of course, Linda McMahon, who was chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment before Trump tapped her as education secretary. (You can see the connection if you close your eyes halfway and tilt your head to the left while wiggling your toes.)
For the uninitiated, the Las Vegas-based UFC is one of the world’s largest mixed martial arts organizations. It hosts combat events for athletes from different fighting styles — boxing, wrestling, jujitsu, kickboxing — inside a cage called the Octagon.
As they say, it takes all kinds. But on the White House lawn?
What should we expect from a reality-show president who demolished part of the White House to make way for a gargantuan, gilded ballroom? A master of distraction, Trump is never at a loss for ways to deflect attention from whatever is making headlines to himself. Although he may have felt rebuffed by musicians who canceled their shows for the 250th anniversary celebration once they learned about the host organization’s ties to the president, the new circumstances gave Trump an excuse to take the stage himself on July 4 and lead what he’s now calling a “rally.”
At a time when toxic masculinity is a legitimate concern — and when boys and men suffer from a variety of problems related to education, jobs, relationships, isolation and depression — it is jarring to see the most extreme examples of masculinity highlighted by the president, not only as entertainment but, presumably, as role models. I have no reason to think that those men in the cage are anything but good citizens, fathers, sons and brothers, but they don’t offer most of America anything to celebrate. Why not skip the pretense and bring in some lions and giraffes?
I’m trying to be polite. Really, I am. And please don’t mistake me for an anti-male feminist. I wrote the book “Save the Males” way back in 2008, outlining the early warning signs of the problems we’re seeing now. Would I rather watch the cast of “Hamilton” at the White House than men pummeling each other into bloody pulps? You bet. But there’s a chasmic difference between brilliant Broadway performers and hyped-up men kicking and punching for spectacle. I can’t bear to think what the rest of the world sees when it watches the most powerful country on Earth, the heart of democracy, descend from the hilltop into the primal muck where man-as-beast triumphs over the sublime. (That’s me being polite.)
The People’s House has been so desecrated by this president with his Midas envy and advisers who seem to have leaped from the cartoonist’s page, some of them unrecognizable from their pre-Trump photos. Does the White House commissary sell Botox and filler? Thanks, Mr. President, for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, other than looking (finally) like a grown-up, seems otherwise like the guy he was last year and the years before.
Finally, the fighter who decided that his victory was the perfect time to insult former first lady Michelle Obama underscored the tasteless theatrics. Real men don’t speak disrespectfully of others regardless of circumstances, but that ship sailed long ago. I hate to break it to the young man in question, but I’ve been up close with Mrs. Obama and she could break you. She’s no man, as he claimed, but she is one powerful woman.
Trump’s big, beautiful brawl, with all its blood, sweat and smears, was an “epic” embarrassment. Once again, the president of our United States has shown the world who he really is — a showman with poor taste and worse judgment, who gets his kicks from watching other people get knocked down. Our boys and young men deserve better, and so do our girls and women.
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