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.
Mr. Trump had been “arranging a UFC fight on the White House grounds — while you’re fighting to pay this month’s bills,” Senator Adam Schiff of California wrote in an X post late last month. “Could he be more out of touch?”
Just 16 percent of Americans — including a third of Republicans — said that it was “appropriate” for Mr. Trump to hold the fights, according to a recent poll by Reuters and Ipsos.
The event underscored Mr. Trump’s longtime political strategy of leaning into spectacle and themes of masculinity, showmanship and made-for-TV moments, which some Republicans credit for the inroads he made with young men and other voters in 2024.
During the last campaign, Mr. Trump made the rounds among podcasters, YouTubers, and online pundits who make up the “manosphere.” Many had built up audiences around content that was not inherently political, including Joe Rogan, who endorsed Mr. Trump after interviewing him on his podcast, and the YouTuber Logan Paul. Dana White, the president of the U.F.C., and the former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan introduced Mr. Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention. Mr. Trump also attended at least three U.F.C. competitions in 2024.
The swing toward Mr. Trump in 2024 prompted a frantic search among Democrats for new “bro whisperers,” and some strategists on the left said their candidates are still far behind Mr. Trump when it comes to finding ways to connect with young men.
Billy Begala, the executive director of the Speaking with American Men Project, a left-leaning group, said that “Democrats are right in calling Trump’s U.F.C. fight stupid and gross” but that the party “cannot cede sports fandom to MAGA.”
“UFC fans aren’t all MAGA diehards — they’re normal, working class guys and Democrats need to prove there’s a place for them in our party,” Mr. Begala said in an email on Sunday ahead of the bouts at the White House.
Two in five American men said they followed or watched mixed martial arts or the U.F.C. in a survey conducted by Echelon Insights in 2024, which also found 17 percent of Republicans and 15 percent of Democrats were fans of the sport.
Mr. Trump and Mr. White, the U.F.C. chief executive, have long been friends. Mr. Trump has also been a small investor in U.F.C.’s parent company. Asked recently by a Time reporter why he was staging a U.F.C. event at the White House to help commemorate America’s 250th birthday, Mr. Trump said, “Well, number one, I like it.”
Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist who also works as a public relations consultant for professional wrestlers, said Democratic candidates should follow Mr. Trump’s lead and start leaning into what they’re interested in.
Mr. Trump “thinks about it as just like whatever entertains him, but as he’s doing that, he’s bringing people together,’” Mr. Ceraso said in a phone interview on Sunday before the event. Democrats, he added, should “stop trying to overthink it.”
“Do the things that you find to be really interesting,” he said, “And push really hard to do that.”
