The upcoming UFC fight at the White House has offered companies a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get their brands in front of a national audience, with one of the country’s most iconic landmarks as a backdrop.
Sponsors have flocked to the opportunity, but one brand backing the Sunday bout stands out as something of a surprise: Bud Light.
The light beer brand set off a MAGA firestorm in 2023 thanks to its brief partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The ensuing controversy, as Republicans piled on the brand for being too “woke,” contributed to Bud Light losing an estimated $1.4 billion and its spot as the top-selling beer in America.
Nonetheless, the Bud Light name will now ring the Octagon arena on the White House’s South Lawn.
The beer brand isn’t alone in sponsoring the fight, which coincides with Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
Other brands with ties to the president have joined the list.
Most prominent among them, of course, is the UFC itself, which is helmed by Trump ally Dana White, and which has hosted Trump as a guest at numerous fights. (For his part, Trump, in his pre-politics days, held UFC fights at his casinos.)
The UFC plans to spend $60 million on the event, according to court filings, and White said the organization will fork out an additional $700,000 to restore the grass on the White House lawn.
The event will also be sponsored by Polymarket, a prediction market that counts the president’s son as an advisor and investor. The fight will be streamed on Paramount Plus, which is controlled by the Trump-allied Ellison family, which is currently seeking federal approval on a deal to buy the Warner Bros. Discovery entertainment empire.
In the lead-up to the White House fight, Washington insiders said a sponsorship package was one of the only good ways to guarantee a seat — and to curry favor with the often transactional president.
“The Trump fundraising team is raising money for it,” a Republican lobbyist told NBC News. “It’s basically been added to the list of approved entities to give undisclosed money to and get credit with Trump.”
“They are raising a s*** ton of money and have used it as another unofficial vehicle for corporate donors to give and gain favor with Trump,” the lobbyist added.
An ongoing federal lawsuit from the Public Integrity Project alleges the entire event is “deeply corrupt” because it gives the UFC “unfettered access” to a taxpayer-funded landmark.
The suit argues that the White House misled the public and framed the event as being planned in coordination with Freedom 250, the public-private partnership organizing American semiquincentennial events, when in fact the UFC was organizing the fight.
The Justice Department argues it is too late to stop the fight, and its response to the suit accused the group bringing it of seeking to “enlist the power of a federal court to impose their idiosyncratic preferences on the rest of the country and ruin an event designed to celebrate the United States of America.”
Trump’s family is also profiting directly from the event, selling Freedom 250-themed silver and gold medallions featuring the president’s face, marketed as a collaboration between the UFC and the Trump Organization, which is run by the president’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. “Trump Coins” range from $250 to $11,999.99.
