President Donald Trump has confirmed a deal with Iran that he said would allow oil traffic to begin again through the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement, made on social media, came just a couple hours before the president was slated to celebrate his 80th birthday and the nation’s 250th anniversary with an unusual White House event: a UFC show featuring seven fights within an eight-sided, wire-mesh cage
.UFC Freedom 250 is set to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern
on the White House South Lawn.
Here's the latest:
UFC posted on social media that severe weather was expected Sunday night and fans should plan accordingly.
“We anticipate inclement weather in the area, so attendees should plan accordingly,” the UFC wrote. “We will share additional information when available.”
UFC CEO Dana White said the show will go on rain or shine. Strong thunderstorms and heavy lightning disrupted Friday’s Lincoln Memorial promotional event, and the forecast for Sunday evening also looks threatening.
Sunday’s event includes a watch party on the Ellipse, the expansive lawn area located between the White House and Washington Monument.
In addition to the massive video screens, there are various military-themed vehicles on display, as well as concession stands and free water that fans were lining up for under the afternoon sun.
The area is heavily secured from the outside, and there’s law enforcement presence inside as well, but as of 5 p.m. there was little sign of any unruliness.
Trump says “the Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete” and says the Strait of Hormuz will open immediately.
“Congratulations to all!” he wrote Sunday on his social media site. “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade.”
The president added, “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Trump’s post came hours before a UFC event at the White House marking his 80th birthday.
Pakistan says the United States and Iran have reached an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since the war began.
Full details of the deal were not immediately available. The signing will be Friday in Switzerland. It is not clear how quickly the strait might reopen to all traffic. The U.S. previously said it would ease its blockade of Iranian ports as the strait reopens, and would agree to relax sanctions to allow Iran to sell more of its oil and strengthen its battered economy.
A muggy and very hot afternoon in Washington was forecast to give way to thunderstorms shortly after the evening fights in honor of Trump’s 80th birthday are set to begin.
UFC chief Dana White has insisted for days that the show will go on rain or shine.
But he’s also conceded, “I’m sick and tired of hearing about the weather” and said his league is sticking to indoor arenas going forward.
The White House is also touchy.
After the Weather Channel warned on X of a “60% chance of thunderstorms, heavy downpours, and wind gusts up to 34 mph,” the Rapid Response 47 account — which posts for the Trump administration — dismissed the post as the work of a “friendless loser” and added an expletive for emphasis.
The Freedom 250 card marks the pinnacle of the relationship between UFC CEO Dana White and Trump, which has yielded personal, political and financial dividends for both parties. White’s first card as UFC president took place in 2001 at an event held at the Trump Taj Mahal casino.
Trump has attended four UFC cards as sitting president, walking to the cage amid rock music and patriotic chants from fans, much like the fighters themselves. White introduced Trump at two Republican National Conventions. White also attended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April that was cut short by a shooting.
The UFC event is an apt metaphor for Trump’s pugilistic political style. He is as big a fan of cage-match-style politics as he is of cage-fighting itself.
But Trump has also long been a master of political misdirection, purposely presenting people with something other than his presidency to focus on when things aren’t going well.
With the war in Iran grinding on despite weeks of assurances from Trump that its end is nigh, gas prices staying high, renewed concerns about inflation and plummeting job approval ratings for Trump — a White House birthday party unlike anything America has ever seen is definitely a diversion.
The apparent breakthrough in negotiations comes after Iran exchanged fire with the U.S. and Israel over three days this week, threatening to push the region into a full-scale war. U.S. Central Command late Friday said in a social media post that it intercepted several Iranian attack drones that were targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. (Produced by Luke Garratt)
“This is all distraction,” said Mike Fontaine, a classics professor at Cornell University, who likened it to the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, when combatants brutalized each other for public entertainment meant to bolster rulers’ popularity and quell potential unrest.
“This is a classic strategy,” Fontaine said. “In ancient Rome, the phrase would be, ‘bread and circuses.’”
Trump says the UFC is paying for the event, and while its full costs haven’t been divulged, the National Park Service said in a court filing that $60-plus million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have gone into it, while seven government agencies have “allocated significant resources and manpower.”
UFC also announced on Friday that it was adding World Liberty Financial as an official partner for the event to create a special $250,000 athlete bonus pool for Sunday night’s winners. The cryptocurrency company is co-owned by the Trump family, founded with the president’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and run by his son, Zach. The arrangement further blurs lines between the Trump family’s financial interests and the events and construction projects the president has prioritized and used government resources to pull off.
One by one, the burly mixed martial arts fighters made their entrance past the solemn, hulking marble statue of America’s 16th president and jogged down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to roars from thousands of fans drawn to the unusual sporting weekend.
The news conference Friday night featured the fighters who are preparing to face off Sunday in the Octagon built outside the White House. But it was also a chance to see the UFC fans who have thronged to Washington and endured lightning, humidity and bugs for the spectacle.
Tracy Philbeck and his son Levi drove from Charlotte, North Carolina, with a group of friends to support their favorite fighter, American Justin Gaethje, in the upcoming lightweight title bout against Georgian Ilia Topuria.
“You will hear an eagle screaming when Justin Gaethje wins,” the elder Philbeck chuckled.
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President Donald Trump turned 80 on Sunday and is set to celebrate with one of the more surreal spectacles both in sports and even in the nation’s capital: cage fighting on the White House lawn.
Against the backdrop of a 3-month-old war with Iran that’s been broadly unpopular with Americans and has rattled global oil markets and with inflation spiked to the highest level since April 2023, the White House — long known as the people’s house and a symbol of American democracy — opened its backyard Sunday night to stage a bruising UFC card on the South Lawn.
More than $60 million and tens of thousands of hours of labor have been poured into building the arena, according to a court filing from the National Park Service, which oversees the South Lawn.
UFC is staging seven fights with all male fighters under the Freedom 250 banner to celebrate Trump’s 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence’s signing.
