The United States military trains Honor Guards for a specific purpose: to fold the flag at funerals, stand at attention at memorials, and carry the weight of the institution’s dignity at the moments that require it. This weekend at the Lincoln Memorial, they were also scenery for a UFC press conference. Abraham Lincoln sat behind them in marble, which is the most he could do.
Trump’s birthday event required a full production. The $60 million arena on the South Lawn. Fighter weigh-ins on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. National Guard members stationed at the memorial throughout construction. And, per Raw Story, military Honor Guards deployed at the Lincoln Memorial for the UFC pre-fight spectacle. The backlash was loud. The event happened anyway, because a federal judge ruled Friday that the money already spent outweighed the plaintiffs’ concerns about using national monuments as party venues. The scaffolding was up. The sunk cost argument won.
Here is where it gets its own paragraph. CNN reported that soldiers were offered free tickets to attend the White House fight but had to meet body-composition standards first. One defense official summarized the message to interested troops as “no fattys.” Another said Pentagon leaders wanted attendees to “look good on camera.” The United States military, which trains people to absorb machine-gun fire, was running a physical appearance audit for a birthday party guest list. The bar for attending the president’s cage fight turned out to be stricter, in one specific dimension, than the bar for deployment.
Army veteran Skyleigh Uhrich called the Honor Guard deployment “a f—— disgrace,” noting that troops of an earlier era would have faced a court-martial for far less. The Public Integrity Project, which filed the lawsuit to block the event, described the whole weekend as “a private, commercial, corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain.” The judge who let it proceed did not disagree with the characterization so much as weigh it against the cost of the scaffolding.
DHS Secretary Mullin, speaking Sunday, praised Trump for “not taking the day off” on his birthday, a standard for presidential behavior that has not previously been the bar. He called the White House “the president’s house,” which it is not, technically, in the way he meant it. He listed the day’s significance: his own wedding anniversary, Flag Day, the Army’s birthday, and the president’s birthday, all folded into one occasion, because there is apparently no longer a meaningful distinction between the man and the institution.
About 4,000 invited guests attended. The main event was a legitimate lightweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. The fighters are real athletes. The fights were real fights. None of that is the issue. The issue is that the evening was framed as a national celebration, staffed with ceremonial military personnel, and screened for guests who met the president’s aesthetic requirements for the camera. The Honor Guards stood at attention throughout. They are trained to do that regardless of the occasion. It is, in retrospect, the job they were always going to get.
The Lincoln Memorial has hosted presidential inaugurations, civil rights marches, and the solemn reflection of a nation at its most serious moments. It has now also hosted a UFC weigh-in. Abraham Lincoln, who survived a war, would probably have the perspective for this. The marble does not visibly suggest it.
When the Honor Guards are at the UFC press conference and soldiers need to pass a body check to get into the birthday party, what exactly is the military being used to honor?
Sources
Raw Story: ‘I’m literally flabbergasted’: Rage as Trump deploys sacred Honor Guards at UFC event
U.S. News / AP: UFC Freedom 250: What to know about the card, the controversy and the construction at the White House
AP / Courthouse News: Inside the crowd drawn to Trump’s unusual UFC fight night at the White House
