Trump’s U.F.C. Event Comes as Backing of Young Men, Once a Strength, Wanes

Some Republicans saw a political opening in Sunday’s fights at the White House. Democrats said they saw a distraction from more pressing matters.


Police on horseback outside of the U.F.C. event at the White House on Sunday. Alex Kent/The New York Times

By Bayliss Wagner
Published June 14, 2026
Updated June 15, 2026, 1:36 a.m. ET

President Trump’s decision to host Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts at the White House on Sunday put him at the center of a sport that is popular with many young men — a demographic that swung toward him in the 2024 election but has since shifted away.

With the midterm elections less than five months away, Republicans are seeking to overcome stiff headwinds fueled by high gas prices, an unpopular war with Iran and low overall approval ratings for Mr. Trump. Some in the G.O.P. saw UFC Freedom 250 as one way to try to recapture support, while some Democrats criticized it in advance as a tone deaf distraction from problems Americans are confronting.

“A lot of our low-propensity voters are young men who don’t like politics very much, but a lot of them do like the U.F.C., and so I think President Trump demonstrating sort of a cultural awareness of the U.F.C.’s popularity is a boon,” said Brad Todd, a veteran Republican strategist, speaking ahead of the event.

Mr. Trump made sizable gains with young men between his 2020 and 2024 campaigns. But recent New York Times/Siena College polls found that Mr. Trump’s approval rating with young men has fallen by about 10 percentage points in the past few months, as he has lost support in other parts of the electorate. In the run-up to Sunday, prominent Democratic elected officials cast the event as a stunt that would do nothing to address voter concerns about high costs.

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Bayliss Wagner is a political reporter and a member of the 2026-27 Times Fellowship, a program for journalists early in their careers.