From tennis to T-ball, the White
House's South Lawn is no stranger to sports. But not like the UFC
[June 09, 2026]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Teddy Roosevelt boxed. Richard Nixon bowled.
Dwight D. Eisenhower put in a putting green. George H.W. Bush added
a horseshoe pit. Herbert Hoover played a game named for himself to
get more exercise, while George W. Bush threw open the space for
youth T-ball.
The White House and its storied South Lawn are no strangers to
sporting events. But they've never seen anything like the UFC bout
President Donald Trump is hosting to celebrate his 80th birthday on
Sunday or the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage complete with an open
overhead dome featuring large screens that are surrounded by
thousands of arena seats.
Sometimes called America’s backyard, the South Lawn was until now
known for low-contact sports and joyful events geared toward
children or bipartisanship, like the annual Easter Egg Roll or the
congressional picnic.
The same space being used for blood sport, feting a president who
relishes it and playing out in a hulking structure featuring a
complicated overhead lighting scheme known as The Claw, illustrates
yet another of the White House norms that Trump is gleefully laying
to rest — or, in UFC parlance, forcing to tap out.
That the president has begun suggesting that he could make the
cage-fighting venue a permanent South Lawn fixture further
underscores just how far from T-ball the White House has come.
“Sports has been central to presidents. I don’t know that it’s been
quite the spectacle that it is with the Trump administration,” said
Michael Patrick Cullinane, senior historian at the Theodore
Roosevelt Presidential Library.
Teddy Roosevelt pioneered sports at the White House
Many early presidents were talented athletes before taking office.
Abraham Lincoln and William Howard Taft were celebrated young
wrestlers. John Quincy Adams was fit enough to take daily naked
swims in the Potomac River while in office.
But Teddy Roosevelt was the first to make sports a large part of
White House life, installing a tennis court on the lawn. His wife,
Edith, was concerned about his workload, and the grass court outside
his office was meant to force more relaxation.
Cullinane, who is the author of “Theodore Roosevelt and the Tennis
Cabinet" and is a history professor at Dickinson State University,
said Roosevelt loved tennis and, though he didn't play well, he did
so “long and vigorously."
Roosevelt would take the court daily at 3 p.m., rain or shine, for
seemingly endless six-game sets against top aides. He also boxed,
holding bouts in the White House that were far more intimate affairs
than Sunday's UFC fight. While sparring with his military aide Col.
Daniel T. Moore in 1905, Roosevelt detached the retina of his left
eye.
During a recent New York Post interview, Trump was asked about
Roosevelt and replied that he “had a lot of energy, loved the
outdoors.” He indicated that he knew about Roosevelt's having boxed
at the White House but didn't comment on how the UFC event might
compare.
Other presidents brought more sports with them
Hoover used the lawn to play a combination of tennis and volleyball
involving 6-pound (2.7-kilogram) medicine balls that White House
physician Adm. Joel T. Boone was credited with inventing to improve
his fitness. The game eventually became known as Hoover-ball.
His successor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had an indoor pool built for
polio therapy. Harry S. Truman ordered an old horseshoe pit removed
from the White House grounds, but the first President Bush
reinstalled it in 1989.
His son hosted T-ball on the South Lawn beginning in 2001 and
presided over 20 games, with his last featuring Little Leaguers who
were the children of active-duty military personnel.
Eisenhower used the putting green outside the Oval Office frequently
enough to leave golf-spike marks on the floors inside. Barack Obama
had White House tennis facilities repainted as a basketball court,
though they were converted back as part of a pavilion improvement
project overseen by first lady Melania Trump during her husband’s
opening term.
[to top of second column] |
President George W. Bush, left, and National Baseball Hall of Fame
member Willie Mays, back right, pose with Robert Shaffer and Colin
Schildt, of Challengers from Thurmont Little League and Civitan Club
of Frederick in Thurmont , Md., during a ceremony at the conclusion
of the White House Tee Ball Game on the South Lawn, Sunday, July 30,
2006, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
Presidents often mixed sports and politics
Playing, or at least being avid fans of, sports has long given
presidents ways to connect to everyday voters while also projecting
vitality.
John F. Kennedy largely hid his skill as a golfer because he was
afraid of bad political optics. But he promoted footage of himself
and his family playing touch football and frolicking in the surf,
seeking to convey his youth and energy.
Nixon had a single-lane bowling alley built in the White House yet
spoke much more frequently in public about his love of football,
trying to appeal to sports fans in ways that his advisers initially
feared might alienate some. Obama made an event of filling out NCAA
brackets with his predicted tournament winner each year.
Trump has attended a series of major sporting events, including
Monday's trip to the NBA finals in New York. The UFC coming to him,
however, is unlike anything the presidency has seen.
“There’s definitely precedence for athletic events, but this is a
combination of athletic event and a celebrity event,” said Tevi
Troy, a presidential historian and senior fellow at the Reagan
Institute.
Troy noted that, as the bevy of musical acts pulling out of the
Trump-led celebration to mark America's 250th birthday illustrates,
“The entertainment world is just hostile to Republicans and Trump.
So he goes to find his celebrities where he can."
Trump has been a UFC fan for decades. His 2024 presidential campaign
showcased his friendship with the league's chief, Dana White, and
Trump also attended bouts around the country, hoping to energize
voters not usually interested in politics.
UFC’s cage matches mirror Trump’s bare-knuckled approach to politics
and sometimes can overlap with his policy initiatives. In making the
case for his immigration crackdown, Trump once told White to
consider setting up a league in which migrants could fight one
another — with the winner then squaring off against the UFC
champion. He suggested the “migrant guy might win.”
Cullinane noted that the “UFC is dominated by men and this idea of
masculinity,” which means “whenever you aim for a certain
demographic, you are almost naturally politicizing the sport.”
‘Maybe we’ll never take it down'
The South Lawn's octagon was built in a matter of weeks and designed
to be temporary, unlikely to survive prolonged exposure to the
elements. But that hasn't stopped Trump from musing about leaving it
up permanently.
The president has likened his birthday party to an international
celebration of yore and The Claw to an architectural marvel in
France. He noted on TikTok that Paris’ Eiffel Tower was built to be
a temporary structure for the 1889 World’s Fair but then, “They
said, ‘You know we sort of like it,’" and eventually, “They never
took it down.”
“You know, we’re building something in front of the White House
that’s quite attractive to a lot of people,” Trump said before
adding, "And I’m looking at it, and maybe we’ll never, ever take it
down.”
Troy said that, 20 years from now, the spectacle that is the UFC on
the White House lawn may feel normal as accepted traditions on
celebrity and sports shift. If so, Trump's tradition-busting will
have played a role.
“Trump, I think, is more willing than other presidents to be asked
that question: ‘Why aren’t you doing it the way the previous
presidents did?’” Troy said. “Breaking the precedent doesn't bother
him.”
___
Associated Press writer Darelene Superville contributed to this
report.
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