(COVER PHOTO FIGHT RING AT WHITE HOUSE: Allison Robbert/AP through NCS Newsource)
By Aileen Graef, Julia Benbrook, NCS
(NCS) — Two Virginia residents have filed a lawsuit searching for to stop the UFC fight President Donald Trump is holding at the White House as a part of celebrations for the nation’s 250th birthday.
The lawsuit, filed Saturday by the Public Integrity Project on behalf of a Vietnam War veteran and a civic activist, argues the construction erected on the White House grounds will not be licensed with out congressional approval or environmental evaluate.
It additionally argues the use of the White House grounds “to stage a private, for-profit sports event, with all the promotional and branding opportunities that accompany such access” will financially profit UFC President Dana White and Trump himself, citing a report in the spring that Trump purchased $50,000 in inventory in UFC’s mum or dad firm.
The lawsuit pushes again on the assertion from the administration that the Ultimate Fighting Championship match falls underneath the authorization from Congress for occasions to rejoice America’s 250th anniversary, saying the occasion “is not in any material sense a ‘celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’—it is, instead, a celebration of the UFC’s brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump’s birth.”
NCS has reached out to the White House and UFC for touch upon the lawsuit.
A federal decide ordered the Trump administration to reply by Tuesday night to the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, has not set a listening to, although he might order each side to seem earlier than him in coming days to make their arguments in particular person. The Virginia residents difficult the occasion had requested the courtroom to decide on their request by Thursday.
The White House South Lawn occasion, set for June 14, coincides with Trump’s eightieth birthday. A weigh-in for the fighters is ready for the day earlier than at the Lincoln Memorial.
“The Lincoln Memorial is sacred ground, and it honors everyone who has ever worn this country’s uniform,” plaintiff Paul Romano, a retired Air Force sergeant and Vietnam veteran, mentioned in a information launch. “Using it as a backdrop for a for-profit cage fight so the President and his friends can make money is a desecration.”
The lawsuit cited reviews that UFC is promoting VIP packages for between $1 million and $1.5 million as a part of the criticism White and Trump are utilizing the alternative for monetary acquire.
Brendan Ballou, founding father of the Public Integrity Project, referred to as the occasion a “profoundly corrupt scheme to enrich the President and his friends.”
“If this fight is allowed to proceed, it will be only the beginning, and our national monuments will become little more than branding opportunities for the rich and well-connected,” he mentioned.
Construction crews are constructing a fight cage on the South Lawn for the June 14 occasion, and the White House is now dwarfed by an enormous arched lighting grid, which the Ultimate Fighting Championship calls “The Claw.”
Trump has mentioned the occasion shall be “the greatest show on Earth.”
The-NCS-Wire
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