{"id":163218,"date":"2026-05-29T11:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/race-cars-and-cage-fights-on-national-park-land\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T11:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:19:25","slug":"race-cars-and-cage-fights-on-national-park-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/race-cars-and-cage-fights-on-national-park-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Race cars and cage fights – on national park land?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Trump plans to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary \u2014 and his own 80th birthday \u2014 next month by watching bare-chested and bloodied UFC fighters kick, punch and choke each other on the historic South Lawn of the White House.<\/p>\n

Later, during the administration’s summer-long celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, IndyCars will race in a fossil fuel-burning extravaganza in and around the National Mall \u2013 home of the U.S. Capitol and the Washington and Lincoln memorials.<\/p>\n

Both locations are National Park Service lands and administered by the agency.<\/p>\n

planned spectacle – ufc freedom 250<\/a> and this Freedom 250 Grand Prix<\/a> – has strayed so far from the Park Service’s traditional mission and ethos that advocates and career employees are screaming.<\/p>\n

“These events are inappropriate and disrespectful to the history and significance of the White House and the National Mall,” said Jonathan Jarvis, who began his career as a park ranger on the Mall in 1976 and was named director of the National Park Service by President Obama in 2009.<\/p>\n

White House officials emphasize that IndyCar and UFC are extremely popular among everyday Americans: They say the race and battle would be a tremendous celebration of patriotism and pride.<\/p>\n

White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the UFC event, in particular, “will be one of the greatest and most historic sporting events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision of celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.”<\/p>\n

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President Trump is hosting a UFC match on the White House grounds in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

(Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

To organize this summer’s programs, the Trump administration asked for help from the National Park Foundation \u2014 a congressionally chartered nonprofit that works closely with the Park Service and collects private donations to maintain hiking trails and help fund programs to get kids outside.<\/p>\n

Due to the scale of the planned celebrations, the Foundation created a limited liability company, “Freedom 250”, to “execute events, activities and celebrations in or around the national parks”. Freedom 250 website<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the website, Freedom 250 has its own staff, but the foundation provides funding and the Park Service approves events and reviews their budgets.<\/p>\n

Due to which the lawyers are scared. <\/p>\n

“Essentially, this is a hijacking of one of America’s oldest and most respected conservation organizations,” said Aaron Weiss, director of the Center for Western Priorities, a Denver-based environmental nonprofit. “There are so many very good people at the foundation who have been doing real work for America’s national parks for many years, it’s heartbreaking to see.”<\/p>\n

When Jarvis was director of the Park Service \u2013 and therefore an ex officio board member of the Foundation \u2013 both organizations worked hand in hand to ensure that the Foundation’s work complemented that of the Park Service. They held the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House South Lawn and lit the Christmas tree on the Ellipse, Jarvis said.<\/p>\n

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Workers continue to paint the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.<\/p>\n

(Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Occasionally, the President made special requests, which were carefully reviewed to ensure they were consistent with Park Service principles. Michelle Obama’s famous “kitchen garden” passes the test, Jarvis said with a laugh, providing fruits and vegetables for family meals \u2014 and the occasional state dinner \u2014 for years.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to imagine that any career park employee, or foundation board member with whom he has worked, would come up with the current agenda, Jarvis said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the IndyCar race and cage fighting, the National Park Foundation is sponsoring “Freedom Truck”<\/u><\/a> – Six red, white and blue tractor trailers traveling across the country as traveling museums – and rededicated 250<\/u><\/a>Earlier this month a large Christian revival meeting was held at the Mall objecting to the mixing of church and state.<\/p>\n

“I think the foundation is being told what to do,” Jarvis said. \u201cAnd I think it’s hard to say no to the White House these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Park Foundation spokesman Josh DeBarge stressed that none of the Freedom 250 money is being spent on IndyCar races or UFC fights.<\/p>\n

But the IndyCar races are listed as “Signature”<\/a> event on the Freedom 250 website, and both IndyCar and UFC are listed as Freedom 250 sponsors. <\/p>\n

Danielle Alvarez, a former senior adviser to the Trump campaign, is a spokesperson for Freedom 250. He acknowledged that the races and cage fighting are taking place on national park land and under the banner of Freedom 250, but said neither was receiving funding or logistical support from his organization.<\/p>\n

“Many groups have adopted the ‘Freedom 250’ branding as part of their celebrations, even if that does not mean it is supported by Freedom 250 funding,” Alvarez said in a text message. “The shared vocabulary is a natural expression of collective pride in 250 years of American independence.”<\/p>\n

Neither IndyCar nor UFC responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

All this comes as the Trump administration has axed the National Park Service, cutting its workforce by 25% through buyouts and layoffs by 2025, and proposing 25% staff cuts this year.<\/p>\n

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A worker applies hot wax during the restoration process of the statue of General Nathanael Greene in Stanton Park on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

(Tom Williams\/CQ-Roll Call\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Trump has also proposed cutting about $800 million from the park system’s roughly $3 billion operating budget \u2014 which would reduce the ability to keep facilities clean and control crowds. Already this year, Yosemite National Park has eliminated the reservation system, causing massive crowds at the canyon and surrounding trails.<\/p>\n

Park supporters fear it is part of a broader and deliberate strategy to marginalize an agency that has long been a sanctuary for environmentalists and progressives \u2014 most of whom likely did not vote for Trump.<\/p>\n

In addition to staff and budget cuts, Trump last year directed the National Park Service clear any language<\/u> He would consider signs and presentations to visitors at parks and historic sites to be negative, unpatriotic, or symbolizing “inappropriate partisan ideology.”<\/p>\n

Instead, he ordered the agency to ensure that its signs remind Americans of our “extraordinary heritage, our steady progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and our unmatched record in advancing freedom, prosperity, and human flourishing.”<\/p>\n

Those marching orders left opponents and supporters of free speech in disbelief, wondering how park staff should have put a sunny spin on monuments acknowledging slavery, Jim Crow laws and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.<\/p>\n

Trump opponents have also questioned the political wisdom of choosing an agency that is routinely among the most admired branches of the large and sprawling federal government. Even Americans who pay little attention to politics will probably never forget standing in Yosemite Valley and gazing at the towering waterfall.<\/p>\n

More than 323 million people visited America’s national parks in 2025, which was less than the total attendance at professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games combined \u2013 135 million.<\/p>\n

This has not stopped the attacks by the current administration.<\/p>\n

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Black granite was installed last month as the new walkway for the West Wing Colonnade at the White House.<\/p>\n

(Andrew Harnick\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

“The ideologues in power now generally have a very poor view of the federal government, and the last thing they want is an extremely popular and successful federal agency,” Jarvis said. “So if they can eliminate it, or minimize it through neglect, they win. They don’t really care about public opinion.”<\/p>\n

Chuck Sams, the last director of the National Park Service, stepped down on the day of Trump’s inauguration. Since then, the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director.<\/p>\n

Sams agreed that the Trump administration seems to have made it up to the Park Service and he worries that the guardrails that used to prevent the executive branch from doing whatever it wants with park lands are disappearing.<\/p>\n

Demolishing the East Wing of the White House for Trump’s proposed ballroom and paving over parts of the White House Rose Garden lawn are prime examples, Sams said.<\/p>\n

Sams said, during his tenure, any proposed changes to the White House or its grounds were done “in a very concrete and thoughtful way with a lot of educated professionals.” “Was it slower? Absolutely, but that was because everyone understood that these places belonged to people.”<\/p>\n

Asked what he thought about the IndyCar race and the cage fight, Sams said, “We’re in uncharted territory, on uncharted ground.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump plans to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary \u2014 and his own 80th birthday \u2014 next month by watching bare-chested and bloodied UFC fighters kick, punch and choke each other on the historic South Lawn of the White House. Later, during the administration’s summer-long celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, IndyCars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[19334,2186,16838,3546,1647,6900,1197],"class_list":["post-163218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-verse","tag-cage","tag-cars","tag-fights","tag-land","tag-national","tag-park","tag-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163237,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163218\/revisions\/163237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}