THE GRIFT
Hollywood stars snub Trump's UFC birthday bash
Daniel Hampton
June 5, 2026
RAW STORY
LOS ANGELES - NOVEMBER 11, 2025: Adam Sandler at the Netflix Jay Kelly Premiere at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood (Photo credit: Joe Seer / Shutterstock)
It's billed as the hottest ticket in Washington — but the celebrities aren't biting, according to a new report.
President Donald Trump's $60 million birthday event, a UFC cage fight on the White House South Lawn set for June 14, has the capital's power players competing for seats, Vanity Fair reports. Donors, lobbyists, and members of Congress have flooded the White House with requests, the outlet reported, with ringside seats reportedly going to those willing to pay more than $1 million in sponsorships.
But Hollywood appears to be going the other way.
UFC boss Dana White told Time magazine he'd invited a roster of A-listers, including Adam Sandler, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jared Leto, Mario Lopez, and Tom Brady. According to Vanity Fair, few if any, will actually attend, as representatives for The Rock, Sandler, Leto, and Lopez all said they won't be there.
The reluctance fits a pattern around Trump's 250th anniversary plans, the magazine noted.
A National Mall concert series fell apart this week after most of its lineup — including a Milli Vanilli singer and Bret Michaels — pulled out, with several citing Trump's partisanship. Trump responded by proposing to replace it with a MAGA rally.
The event falls on Trump's 80th birthday, with a guest list curated by Trump himself, as the war in Iran continues.
Daniel Hampton
June 5, 2026
RAW STORY
LOS ANGELES - NOVEMBER 11, 2025: Adam Sandler at the Netflix Jay Kelly Premiere at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood (Photo credit: Joe Seer / Shutterstock)
It's billed as the hottest ticket in Washington — but the celebrities aren't biting, according to a new report.
President Donald Trump's $60 million birthday event, a UFC cage fight on the White House South Lawn set for June 14, has the capital's power players competing for seats, Vanity Fair reports. Donors, lobbyists, and members of Congress have flooded the White House with requests, the outlet reported, with ringside seats reportedly going to those willing to pay more than $1 million in sponsorships.
But Hollywood appears to be going the other way.
UFC boss Dana White told Time magazine he'd invited a roster of A-listers, including Adam Sandler, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jared Leto, Mario Lopez, and Tom Brady. According to Vanity Fair, few if any, will actually attend, as representatives for The Rock, Sandler, Leto, and Lopez all said they won't be there.
The reluctance fits a pattern around Trump's 250th anniversary plans, the magazine noted.
A National Mall concert series fell apart this week after most of its lineup — including a Milli Vanilli singer and Bret Michaels — pulled out, with several citing Trump's partisanship. Trump responded by proposing to replace it with a MAGA rally.
The event falls on Trump's 80th birthday, with a guest list curated by Trump himself, as the war in Iran continues.
Adam Nichols
June 5, 2026
RAW STORY
Construction continues on a temporary arena that will host the UFC Freedom 250 fight event in June on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 27, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
With his Freedom 250 concert series in shambles after a mass exodus of performers, President Donald Trump has pivoted to what a campaign-style rally — and his newly revealed musical guests are really scraping the barrel.
Trump announced the "Rally to End All Rallies" Thursday night on Truth Social. It is scheduled for June 24 in Washington, D.C. — one day before the now-gutted Great American State Fair was set to open.
AN original concert — dubbed Freedom 250 — turned into a farce as headliners learned the event carried explicit political ties to Trump — a fact many said they weren't told upfront. Milli Vanilli singer Fab Morvan became the latest to walk, joining Martina McBride and Bret Michaels. The event's website now lists zero performers.
The replacement event's lineup reflects how dramatically Trump's musical options have narrowed. Country singer Lee Greenwood, 83, will open the proceedings with his 1984 signature track "God Bless the U.S.A." — the same song he has performed at Trump events since 2016. Three of Greenwood's top five songs on Spotify are variations of the same tune.
Trump also tapped tenor Christopher Macchio, whom he compared to the late Luciano Pavarotti, to perform classical selections. Macchio currently draws 571 monthly listeners on Spotify and 2,000 YouTube subscribers.
Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice, and Freedom Williams of C+C Music Factory have not yet withdrawn from Freedom 250.
Construction continues on a temporary arena that will host the UFC Freedom 250 fight event in June on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 27, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
With his Freedom 250 concert series in shambles after a mass exodus of performers, President Donald Trump has pivoted to what a campaign-style rally — and his newly revealed musical guests are really scraping the barrel.
Trump announced the "Rally to End All Rallies" Thursday night on Truth Social. It is scheduled for June 24 in Washington, D.C. — one day before the now-gutted Great American State Fair was set to open.
AN original concert — dubbed Freedom 250 — turned into a farce as headliners learned the event carried explicit political ties to Trump — a fact many said they weren't told upfront. Milli Vanilli singer Fab Morvan became the latest to walk, joining Martina McBride and Bret Michaels. The event's website now lists zero performers.
The replacement event's lineup reflects how dramatically Trump's musical options have narrowed. Country singer Lee Greenwood, 83, will open the proceedings with his 1984 signature track "God Bless the U.S.A." — the same song he has performed at Trump events since 2016. Three of Greenwood's top five songs on Spotify are variations of the same tune.
Trump also tapped tenor Christopher Macchio, whom he compared to the late Luciano Pavarotti, to perform classical selections. Macchio currently draws 571 monthly listeners on Spotify and 2,000 YouTube subscribers.
Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice, and Freedom Williams of C+C Music Factory have not yet withdrawn from Freedom 250.
‘Pay-to-Play Loyalty Program’: Trump Ballroom Donors Have Been Handed $50 Billion in Federal Contracts
“Corporations wrote big checks to build Trump’s golden ballroom,” said Rep. Jason Crow. “Now they’re receiving billions of dollars in kickbacks—paid for by your tax dollars.”
“Corporations wrote big checks to build Trump’s golden ballroom,” said Rep. Jason Crow. “Now they’re receiving billions of dollars in kickbacks—paid for by your tax dollars.”
US President Donald Trump holds artists’ renderings as he talks to reporters about his proposed White House ballroom next to the worksite on May 19, 2026 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Stephen Prager
Jun 05, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Sen. Elizabeth Warren suggested President Donald Trump is running a “pay-to-play loyalty program for wealthy donors” after a report on Thursday revealed that more than half the companies that contributed to his White House ballroom project have been awarded government contracts over the last six months, totaling over $50 billion.
Examining the 27 publicly known corporate donors to the president’s $400 million gold-plated vanity project, the watchdog group Public Citizen found that 14 of them—more than half—had received either new or expanded contracts over the past six months after donating millions to the ballroom and appearing at a lavish White House banquet in October as Trump prepared to demolish the building’s East Wing.
Over two-thirds, 19 of the 27 companies, received government contracts since fiscal year 2021, totaling over $338 billion. At least 16 out of 27 are also either facing federal enforcement actions and/or have had them suspended by the Trump administration.
“These giant corporations aren’t funding the Trump ballroom fiasco out of the goodness of their hearts. They have massive interests before the federal government, and they hope to curry favor with, and receive favorable treatment from, the Trump administration,” said Public Citizen democracy advocate Jon Golinger, an author of the report.
By far the biggest monetary beneficiary has been the military contractor Lockheed Martin, which received a $43.8 billion in new or expanded contract funding over the past six months after it pledged $10 million to fund the dance hall last fall.
Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting company that serves military and intelligence agencies and pledged at least $5 million to the project, received $4 billion in contracts over the same period.
Meanwhile, Palantir—the data-mining surveillance giant with deep ties to the Trump administration—reaped over $1 billion in contracts after giving its own $5 million donation.
“Millions to fund Trump’s bizarre fever dreams are nothing compared to the billions they’re getting back in contracts and favorable government enforcement decisions,” Golinger said. “The American people are paying the price.”
Other ballroom benefactors that have brought in more than $100 million worth of contracts over the past six months include Microsoft, Amazon, HP, and Caterpillar, while T-Mobile, Google, NextEra Energy, and Comcast have all brought in more than $10 million.
Public Citizen noted that while the White House has publicized some of the ballroom donors and others have been revealed by news organizations, not all of the companies that have contributed to the project are publicly known, since the secret funding agreement obtained by the group through a Freedom of Information Act request allows their identities to remain private.
In a statement to The Washington Post, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle suggested that critics should be grateful that Trump was soliciting donations from the wealthy for this very important undertaking.
“The same critics who are alleging fake conflicts of interest would also complain if American taxpayers were footing the bill for these long-overdue renovations,” he said, ignoring the fact that Trump has previously pressured Republicans in Congress to appropriate hundreds of millions in taxpayer funding to secure the ballroom.
Ingle added that “the donors for the White House ballroom project represent a wide array of great American companies and generous individuals, all of whom are contributing to make the People’s House better for generations to come.”
But several Democratic members of Congress have pointed to it as evidence of Trump selling out the government “to the highest bidder.”
“Corporations wrote big checks to build Trump’s golden ballroom,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Col.). “Now they’re receiving billions of dollars in kickbacks—paid for by your tax dollars.”
“Wild coincidence or taxpayer-funded corruption?” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “You be the judge.”
Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) said that “the part that should make your blood boil” is the fact that many of the companies identified in the report “were facing federal enforcement actions, antitrust reviews, labor cases, [or] securities charges.”
“Many of those cases have been quietly dropped or scaled back since Trump took office. You write a check, your legal problems disappear,” Levin said. “That’s not a coincidence.”
“You cannot afford to donate to Trump’s ballroom, so he does nothing to improve the quality of your life,” said Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). “But for those who can, there are billions in government contracts.”
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