An MS NOW host sounded the alarm early Sunday over one of the stranger wrinkles of President Donald Trump’s UFC takeover of the White House: the administration handing a private company control over which journalists are allowed on the grounds.
Pointing to a Washington Post report, Jonathan Capehart noted that the White House press corps will be locked out during Sunday’s cage fight on the South Lawn unless the UFC itself grants them credentials.
“This is highly unusual,” the host said. “This has never happened.”
The Post reported that the White House — which normally handles credentialing for major events on its own grounds — is ceding that control to UFC, the mixed-martial-arts promotion run by Trump friend and ally Dana White. According to an email from White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang, only the small press pool will be guaranteed access; other reporters without UFC credentials would have to watch from screens at the nearby Ellipse or a hotel, cut off from their workspaces and the briefing room.
Journalist Sabrina Siddiqui said that, while this is indeed a break from tradition, it’s also “par for the course” for a president who consistently limits media access.
She further argued that Trump remains “a master of distraction and political misdirection,” staging the event against a grim backdrop: an unpopular war with Iran, rising gas and grocery prices, and a string of legal and political setbacks. She noted Secretary of State Marco Rubio had likened the UFC’s significance to the U.S. putting a man on the moon, and said the hypermasculine showcase comes as polls show Trump bleeding support among the young male voters who helped power his 2024 coalition.
The White House has disputed the press-access reporting. A spokesperson called the Post’s account “fake news,” saying the administration had extended its existing press pool, and White has said no one was banned from the event.
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