In a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by two Virginia residents seeking to halt President Donald Trump's UFC birthday celebration, an administration official disclosed an unusual detail about the planned festivities. According to a declaration submitted in court Wednesday by Marisa Richardson, chief of the National Mall and Memorial Parks Division of Permits Management, the UFC intends to have each fighter enter the Lincoln Memorial chamber via an elevator from a lower level, each accompanied by a child.
Each fighter and accompanying child will be filmed walking through the chamber and descending the steps to the press conference area, Richardson stated. The identity of the children or the reason for their participation was not explained. The White House and the UFC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Lawsuit Details
The lawsuit to stop the tournament was filed by Virginia residents Susan Douglas, a former federal employee and activist organizer, and Paul Romano, a retired Air Force sergeant and Vietnam War veteran. They argue the event is a deeply corrupt money-making venture for the president. Sponsorship packages cost up to $1.5 million per person, and financial disclosures show Trump personally invested up to $50,000 in TKO, the company that owns the UFC, two weeks after the fight was announced.
Legal Proceedings
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is overseeing the litigation and is expected to issue a ruling Thursday. A White House spokesperson called the lawsuit obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory, brought simply to prevent President Trump from hosting what they described as one of the most historic sporting events in the nation's history during the semiquincentennial celebration.
Brendan Ballou, an attorney with the Public Integrity Project representing Douglas and Romano, described the event in court filings as a volcano of corruption. Such a volcano of corruption, if allowed to go forward, will mark an inflection point in American history, he wrote. The images it generates will one day appear in the history books, and not in the chapters about times remembered fondly.
Allegations and Concerns
Romano and Douglas have asked Mehta to stop the National Parks Service from using the South Lawn. They allege the Trump administration originally said it would not use the physical chamber of the Lincoln Memorial for fighter walk-outs but would use a section known as the approach, but that appears to have changed. The presence of children at a notoriously violent sport strikes an unusual chord, though it is common in soccer, where professional players walk hand in hand with children before big matches.
