President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday cage match on the South Lawn was supposed to deliver a Hollywood spectacle to match the hype. Instead, the guest list released ahead of the June 14, 2026 UFC event reads less like a red-carpet roll call and more like a Trump family Christmas card.
According to a New York Post tally surfaced on June 9, 2026, the president will mark the milestone alongside First Lady Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Eric and Lara Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. with his new wife, Bettina Trump. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is also expected to attend with her husband, Nicholas Riccio, in her first White House appearance since giving birth to her second child.
What the roster lacks is the firepower Trump and UFC President Dana White had spent weeks promising: A-list stars who could turn a blood sport on the South Lawn into a cultural moment.
The Celebrities Who Took a Pass
White had floated a Murderers’ Row of invitees in interviews, naming Adam Sandler, Tom Brady, Guy Ritchie, Jared Leto, Jason Statham, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Mario Lopez. One by one, the RSVPs have come back negative. A source close to Johnson told Vanity Fair the wrestler-turned-actor will not be there. Representatives for Sandler and Leto have also confirmed they will skip the event. A representative for Lopez previously told HuffPost he had work commitments.
Representatives for Ritchie, Brady and Statham have not responded to multiple requests for comment. Jon Favreau, the director of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” and the “Iron Man” franchise and a longtime UFC fan, also did not return a request for comment after speculation surfaced that he had been invited.
“Of that group, few, if any, will actually be there,” Vanity Fair reported in its survey of the invitees.
Asked about the dwindling celebrity contingent, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle struck a defiant tone in a statement to reporters on June 10, 2026: “This will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary.”
A South Lawn Transformed
Star power aside, Sunday’s card is still on track to be one of the most unusual spectacles ever staged at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The South Lawn has been transformed into a temporary arena complete with an octagon, stadium lighting and bleacher seating. About 5,000 invited guests are expected to attend, with tens of thousands more watching on giant screens set up on the Ellipse. A massive light fixture dubbed “The Claw” now towers above the executive mansion, and Trump has suggested the structure may stay put — likening it, in characteristic fashion, to the Eiffel Tower.
The seven-bout card will be headlined by lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and interim champion Justin Gaethje. Mark Shapiro, the president and chief operating officer of TKO Group Holdings, has pegged the total cost at roughly $60 million, with White saying the UFC is shouldering most of the bill.
Washington Scrambles for Seats
If the celebrity world has cooled, the capital’s power class is in a full sprint. The White House has fielded an onslaught of requests from top-dollar donors, lobbyists and members of Congress all clamoring for a place around the octagon. Trump has 1,000 tickets to give out. White and Ari Emanuel, the superagent whose company TKO Group Holdings owns the UFC, have 200 apiece. Ringside seats have reportedly gone to sponsors willing to commit more than one million dollars.
“It’s the hottest ticket in town,” one senior Trump administration official said, adding that he was still hoping for a call-up. Trump has been handpicking allies for the rest of the list with help from chief of staff Susie Wiles.
A Recurring Headache for America 250
The celebrity drought is the latest in a string of setbacks for Trump’s broader America 250 push. A planned concert series on the National Mall — featuring a member of Milli Vanilli, Bret Michaels and Flo Rida — collapsed after nearly all the acts pulled out. Several artists said they had been led to believe the Great American State Fair concert was nonpartisan before learning it would be closely identified with Trump. Some explicitly cited the president’s partisanship in walking away.
Trump’s response was to cancel the concert entirely and pivot to a rally format. “They’re boring. I don’t, I don’t even want them. And when I heard a couple of them canceled out, I said, ‘Cancel the whole thing. I don’t wanna … We’re gonna do a rally,'” he told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
Behind the scenes, a turf battle is also brewing between America250, the bipartisan group formed in 2016 to plan the semiquincentennial, and Freedom 250, the rival outfit Trump established in 2025 to muscle in on the festivities. For now, the most visible piece of that planning is a cage on the South Lawn — surrounded, by the looks of it, almost entirely by the Trump family and the people who work for them.