The Trump administration urged a federal judge to toss a last-minute lawsuit filed by a left-wing activist group seeking to block the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 fight at the White House.
The UFC Freedom 250 event is set to take place Sunday, which is both Flag Day and President Donald Trump‘s 80th birthday, on the South Lawn of the White House, with the weigh-ins and faceoffs to be at the Lincoln Memorial. The lawsuit filed against the National Park Service, along with other federal agencies and officials, by two Virginia residents backed by the left-wing activist group Public Integrity Project, alleges the planned events at the White House and Lincoln Memorial are “deeply corrupt,” violating NPS regulations on sporting events on its property and being a burden to taxpayers. The Department of Justice, in its brief filed Tuesday evening, took aim at the two residents for filing their lawsuit on the eve of the event, which was announced in 2025, while also asserting that “NPS’s regulations do not prohibit the UFC Freedom 250 activities.”
The DOJ brief noted the millions of dollars spent, hours of labor expended, travel accommodations made by attendees of the event, and 14 fighters who trained for months and who could have their hopes “dashed at the very last moment” by two random people who “think the sights and sounds associated with UFC Freedom 250 are ‘hideous’ and ‘disgusting.’”
“It would be easy enough to simply avert their gazes for the weekend,” the DOJ filing said. “Instead, they seek to enlist the power of a federal court to impose their idiosyncratic preferences on the rest of the country and ruin an event designed to celebrate the United States of America. And they have chosen to do so only after Defendants and many third parties — the White House, the UFC, and ticketholders — have expended enormous time and vast resources for events starting in just days. A more starkly mismatched balance of harms would be difficult to conceive.”
“Plaintiffs’ delay is inexcusable. These events were publicly announced almost a year ago; the dates were confirmed by the White House three months ago; and site preparations have been publicly visible for weeks. This alone suffices to deny emergency relief,” the DOJ brief added.
The event is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Sunday, with a seven-fight lineup planned, in a specially constructed outdoor venue known as “the Claw” on the South Lawn. The venue will have 4,500 seats, while thousands more will be able to watch the fights from large screens set up on the Ellipse, and the event will be televised on Paramount+.
The group suing the administration over the UFC fight will have until Wednesday evening to respond to the DOJ’s filing, with both sides saying they would be available for oral argument on Thursday if the judge deems it necessary. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, has been assigned to handle the case.
The lawsuit against the National Park Service aiming to stop the UFC fight on the White House’s South Lawn was filed by the Public Integrity Project, a left-wing group that has also filed similar lawsuits to stop Trump administration actions.
The group was founded earlier this year, backed by former Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold and former DOJ prosecutor Brendan Ballou as its CEO. Ballou worked at the DOJ from 2020 until 2025, saying Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters were his reason for resigning. The Public Integrity Project has also filed lawsuits against the DOJ’s proposed $1.776 “anti-weaponization fund,” the Trump administration-brokered sale of the majority of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group of investors, and the architect of the Capitol for not installing a congressionally-approved plaque about the Capitol riot.
The two people who are leading the lawsuit against the UFC fight are Virginia residents Paul Romano and Susan Douglas. The left-wing group describes Romano as a Vietnam War veteran who previously ran for office as a Republican and Douglas as a Democratic organizer and civic activist. Federal Election Commission data indicate both Romano and Douglas donated to former Vice President Kamala Harris’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign against Trump.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FREEDOM 250 UFC FIGHT ON THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN
The other controversial construction project on the White House grounds, the planned East Wing ballroom, has faced months of litigation in federal court, even as construction has continued.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard arguments in the administration’s bid to keep construction on the ballroom going, with the judges appearing skeptical of both the administration’s bid to build the ballroom and the ability for the group suing the administration to even sue to stop ballroom construction.
