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Following the Freedom 250 concert fiasco which saw announced headliners pulling out one by one of the upcoming event, Donald Trump is facing another A-lister problem.
His UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) extravaganza, which is transforming the White House South Lawn into a 4,500-seat cage fight arena, is apparently hemorrhaging celebrities.
A reported 300 invitations were sent out to celebs, with UFC president Dana White telling Time magazine that the likes of actors Adam Sandler, Jared Leto, Jason Statham, as well as director Guy Ritchie, former NFL player Tom Brady and wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson were on the UFC Freedom 250 guest list.
However, the talent seems to have no plans to actually show up on 14 June – which also happens to be Trump’s 80th birthday.
Much like the musicians snubbing the Great American State Fair concerts over the fact they don’t want to be associated with a Trump-affiliated event or wish to participate in partisan celebrations, A-listers are snubbing the cage fight.
A source close to The Rock told Vanity Fair that he will not be attending, while representatives for Adam Sandler and Jared Leto have said that they won’t be present for the fight.
No one knows who will actually show up, but on the A-list front, it’s looking like another booking disaster for the Trump administration and its public-private partnered Freedom 250 events.
Freedom 250 is funded through a public-private partnership with funding from Trump-aligned tech firms Palantir and Oracle and federal contractors Deloitte and Lockheed Martin, among others. It has been facing growing scrutiny from watchdog groups and members of Congress over the use of federal dollars for Trump-aligned events.
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen has called for congressional investigations after The New York Times reported that donors to Freedom 250 were offered access to the president if they donated $1 million.
According to a recent YouGov survey, 51 per cent of Americans disapprove of the cage fight celebration, with many viewing the event as a party for Trump rather than a true 250-year celebration of the US.