Donald Trump recently hosted a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event at the White House to celebrate his 80th birthday, an occasion nominally tied to the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding. The event, which required extensive Secret Service resources, military musicians, and the construction of a large octagonal cage on the South Lawn, represents Trump's efforts to symbolically fuse the federal government with his person, insisting that he is America and the state.
The Fantasy of Trumpism
As Moira Donegan writes in The Guardian, this event embodies the fantasy of Trumpism: permanent domination. The movement hopes that Republicans, through sheer force, have won the game—defeating pluralism, dignity, and self-government, and issuing a painful defeat to opponents. However, this hope is futile, as no domination is permanent.
Trump's Small Ambitions
Unlike Hitler's dream of a 1,000-year Reich or Putin's territorial conquests, Trump's ambitions are conspicuously small. He seeks praise, visibility, and indulgence in lowbrow tastes from the 1980s—Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, Bon Jovi, and gaudy tokens of masculinity like big trucks and muscles.
The UFC Event
The UFC event featured mixed martial arts fights, described as frantic and unbeautiful, with Octagon Girls in sequined outfits and fighters inflicting repeated head injuries. The White House lawn was emblazoned with a Monster Energy logo. One victor, Bo Nickal, thanked Trump before God.
Trump's hosting of the event reaffirms his values, using government property for personal celebration and profit-making for friends. The spectacle of violence for his entertainment echoes a dysfunctional Roman emperor. As the broadcast noted, the fantasy is a dominance so undeniable that it becomes permanent—but this is an illusion.
