STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On Sunday, the UFC will hold seven fights on the White House lawn. It is billed as a celebration of America's 250th birthday. Sunday also happens to be Flag Day and President Trump's 80th birthday.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Trump has been preparing for the fights and other projects in a politically weak moment. The war in Iran is dragging on, though he says yet again that a peace agreement is coming soon. Inflation is over 4%, and his approval ratings are the lowest they've ever been.
INSKEEP: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben has been trying to assess what is on the president's mind based on his words. Danielle, good morning.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK, what's the president excited about?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, he's certainly excited about this fight, as well as the other events that are planned for America's 250th. There's also going to be a rally on the Mall, where Trump will speak, and an Indy car race on the streets of D.C. And then there are his building projects, which he's certainly excited about. He's torn down the East Wing to build a ballroom and military complex. He wants to build a massive arch near Arlington National Cemetery and a pedestrian bridge next to the Lincoln Memorial. And he just completed work on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
And you just get the sense that all of that is what excites Trump right now. At all these events, whether he's signing a bill, talking about coal power or even at a farmers roundtable in Wisconsin, he just can't seem to help himself. He goes on these long tangents about these projects. But also, the time he's devoting to these things is especially striking when you think about how amid all of this, he declared the Iran negotiations boring. Or you think about the priorities that have fallen off the radar. He had vowed to end the Russian war on Ukraine. He had pushed a healthcare overhaul. Those things have pretty much gone quiet.
INSKEEP: How unusual is it for a president to have so many - I guess you'd call them side projects?
KURTZLEBEN: Taken together, very, is what a Princeton political historian, Julian Zelizer, told me. Now, the White House has said there's precedent for a lot of what he's doing, like holding public sporting events on the White House lawn or President Theodore Roosevelt holding and even participating in boxing matches at the White House. However, here's what Zelizer had to say about this weekend's fights.
JULIAN ZELIZER: In addition to just how big it is and how much space it's literally and symbolically taking in his presidency at a moment the nation's in the middle of a war, it also raises all these conflict-of-interest questions which are also different than having a boxing match in the White House.
KURTZLEBEN: In fact, a watchdog group filed a lawsuit just last week aiming to stop this weekend's fights, noting how much UFC could profit off of it, and also pointing out that Trump owns stock in the company that owns the UFC. Now, when I asked the White House about this, spokesperson Davis Ingle insisted there's no conflict of interest, and he said the president's assets are in a trust run by his children.
INSKEEP: OK, so this appears to be a for - not appears to be, it is. It's a for-profit event. With that said, wouldn't you expect the president to try to put on some kind of show for the 250th?
KURTZLEBEN: Sure, though you can see sharp contrast when you look back to, for example, the bicentennial in 1976. Back then, President Ford did this big tour of historic sites, including this sweeping speech at Philadelphia's Independence Hall.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GERALD FORD: The United States today remains the most successful realization of humanity's universal hope. The world may or may not follow, but we lead because our whole history says we must.
KURTZLEBEN: It's a real contrast to a cage fight, but it also raises the question of how ultimate fighting connects to American history, whether that matters. And it's also just a pretty incredible illustration of Trump's effect on politics.
INSKEEP: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Have a nice weekend.
KURTZLEBEN: You too. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
