Security Risk Cited In Ballroom Case Not Stopping Trump's Outdoor UFC Event

Source: Huff Post

May 27, 2026, 04:43 PM EDT | Updated 7 hours ago


WASHINGTON — After a gunman opened fire near the White House over the weekend, President Donald Trump’s administration made an urgent plea to the judge hearing a lawsuit over his proposed ballroom, saying in a brief that the shooting shows why the president needs the ballroom to safely host special events.

“Without this National Security Facility, such events are otherwise relegated to the vulnerable tents on the South Lawn, exposed to various threats, as again shown by last night’s shooting, which would have been easily in range to reach a tent,” the Justice Department said in its brief filed Sunday. (Secret Service agents fatally shot a 21-year-old man with apparent mental health issues who’d opened fire on a checkpoint.)

But the supposed vulnerability of the South Lawn hasn’t stopped the White House from hosting major events there — including an open-air mixed-martial arts event scheduled for June 14, which happens to be Trump’s 80th birthday. Large arches have been erected on the South Lawn ahead of the “UFC Freedom 250” event Trump’s hosting as part of his administration’s celebration of America’s upcoming 250th birthday. The UFC envisions hundreds of guests watching fights under bright lights and a dusky sky just outside the executive mansion.

Juliette Kayyem, a lecturer on national security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former official at the Department of Homeland Security, said the UFC plans undermine the administration’s ballroom argument. “You can’t have both. You can’t say, ‘We’re going to do the UFC and it’s going to be safe and secure, and we’re going to have this big event. And by the way, we need a ballroom because we can’t protect the president,’” Kayyem told HuffPost. “Those two things don’t go together.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ballroom-south-lawn-ufc-fight-security_n_6a17355ee4b062ca52d777e0?origin=home-latest-news-unit