President-elect Donald Trump attended the UFC Heavyweight Championship bout at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, combining two things close to his heart: a fight inside the Octagon and New York City.
After a year’s delay, Stipe Miocic will look to take on reigning champion Jon Jones at UFC 309 for his third heavyweight championship reign.
Trump is a longtime UFC fan and frequently attends major fights. She has made her push for an ultra-masculine tone a symbol of her recent successful White House campaign, aiming to further widen the gap between herself and her Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris, among male voters. did.
The visit to New York, where Trump lived for decades before moving to the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, comes after the president-elect announced his pick for energy secretary in the next administration. Ta.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a key ally, will also follow suit, giving Trump more direct access to the decision-making process as Treasury secretary, another top post still under consideration in the new administration. The public’s opinion was sought.
President Trump said Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, has been selected to be Secretary of Energy. Wright has been a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including hydraulic fracturing, a key pillar of President Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in global markets.
Meanwhile, Musk pondered the president-elect’s yet-to-be-determined choice for Treasury secretary and urged people to use his social platforms to weigh in.
“It would be interesting to see more people weigh in on this so @realDonaldTrump considers feedback,” said President Trump, who is already a co-chair of a committee tasked with streamlining government spending. Musk, who has been selected as president, posted on his X social media platform on Saturday. .
Musk used his remaining post to become the first participant in his proposed poll. Ahead of the presidential inauguration on January 20, 2025, he has been chosen to replace hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and a member of President Trump’s transition team. He supported co-chair Howard Lutnick.
“Bessent is the usual choice, but @howardlutnick will really make a difference,” Musk said in the post.
“Change is needed because business as usual is leading America to bankruptcy,” he said.
Messrs. Lutnick and Messrs. Bessent have both been mentioned as potential candidates to head the Treasury Department. Bessent is considered a more traditional and business-friendly option. Although Lutnick is skeptical about cryptocurrencies, he suggests that people could use them to pay their taxes.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom President Trump nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, also supported Lutnick, posting on his It’s a hedge against.”
“Bitcoin will have no stronger advocate than Howard Lutnick,” he wrote, misspelling Lutnick’s last name.
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President Trump has already announced a number of picks for his new administration in recent days, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and former Florida congressman Marco Rubio for attorney general. This includes the selection of Mr. Matt Gates. The Treasury Department is the most important post left for him, but the president-elect has not yet announced options for other positions, such as secretary of the Department of Education or Department of Labor.
Separately, President Trump said he has selected Will Scharf, a member of his defense team and former federal prosecutor, to be his chief of staff and White House chief of staff. Also on Saturday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson met with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago before Trump flew to New York for the UFC showdown.
Aside from a day trip to Washington this week to meet with President Joe Biden for nearly two hours and address House Republicans individually, President Trump has not spent time since his victory at Mar-a-Lago on Election Day. There is. The club has hosted celebratory and conservative events throughout the week.
In addition to being a fan of the sport, the president-elect has been close with Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White for more than 20 years.
White hosted a UFC fight at the Trump Taj Mahal, a former casino hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001, and Trump has frequently attended UFC fights since then, including during the 2024 campaign. I am doing it. Mr. Trump has recently been involved in scuffles with prominent aides, including Mr. White, musician Kid Rock and former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson.
In 2018, during Trump’s first term, Trump and White appeared in a UFC video, with the then-president being called the “top fighter.”
Over the past decade, as President Trump has tightened his grip on the national Republican Party, White’s personal political profile has skyrocketed. White spoke at the 2016 and 2020 Republican conventions and when party members gathered in Milwaukee this July. He also addressed the crowd at Trump’s Florida victory party in the early morning hours of Election Day.
“This is what happens when cars chase you,” White said at the time. “What we’ve seen the last few years is that he just can’t stop. He keeps going. He’s not quitting.”
