‘UFC At The White House...’: Zohran Mamdani Reveals Weirdest Thing He Saw When He Met Trump

New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani told a podcaster that a coffee-table book was one of the strangest things he noticed during his recent visit to the White House to meet US President Donald Trump.

Speaking to Adam Friedland on “The Adam Friedland Show,” Mamdani recounted the encounter in a clip released on social media on Tuesday.
“What was the weirdest thing he showed you?” Friedland asked. “He had to have shown you something — one thing weird.”

Mamdani replied that the most unexpected sight was a coffee-table book. “In front of me are like, all these different coffee table books, and one of them is an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the White House,” he said. He recalled flipping through the book while waiting for his meeting with Trump, looking at visualisations of what an octagon ring would look like on the South Lawn.

A UFC event is scheduled to take place on White House grounds in June 2026, though Mamdani said he had “no idea” such an event was being planned. The mixed-martial arts spectacle is being positioned as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

UFC President and CEO Dana White — a long-time Trump ally — has said the event will host around 5,000 spectators, making it the first tournament of its kind to be staged inside the White House complex. According to the Sports Business Journal, the UFC will spend nearly $700,000 to restore and replace the South Lawn grass after the event.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old political insurgent who shot from relative obscurity to win New York City Hall earlier this month, has had a combative public back-and-forth with Trump. During the campaign, he compared the Republican leader to “bad landlords… taking advantage of their tenants,” while Trump branded the Ugandan-born Democrat a “communist” and even suggested he should be deported.

Given that backdrop, many expected fireworks when the self-described Democratic socialist finally met Trump in the Oval Office. Instead, the meeting was unexpectedly cordial. A smiling Trump praised Mamdani’s historic win, said he could “do a great job,” and called him “a man who really wants to see New York be great again.”

“We’re going to be helping him to make everybody’s dream come true: having a strong and very safe New York,” Trump said at the joint press conference after their meeting.