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President-elect Donald J. Trump arrived at Madison Square Garden for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, which for a brief moment resembled one of his campaign rallies.
Reporting from inside the arena at Madison Square Garden
Nov. 17, 2024, 5:47 a.m. ET
President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has made few public appearances since Election Day, returned on Saturday to Madison Square Garden, the site of an inflammatory campaign rally late last month, to face a warm welcome from tens of thousands of people at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event.
Mr. Trump walked in to “American Bad Ass,” by Kid Rock, and was met with a chant of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
As the president-elect took his seat around 10 p.m. at the edge of the octagonal fighters’ cage, the arena for a few minutes could have been mistaken for one of his rallies. In an unusually political scene at a major sporting event, Mr. Trump was heralded on the Jumbotrons with a sleek video that began with Fox News calling the election for him and ended with the numbers 45 and 47 flashing red on a black screen.
Joining Mr. Trump at the event were Elon Musk and the podcaster Joe Rogan, as well as several of the president-elect’s choices for high-ranking posts in his administration: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the would-be health secretary; Tulsi Gabbard, his pick for director of national intelligence; and Vivek Ramaswamy, who along with Mr. Musk has been tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency, intended to advise on cost-cutting. The group, which also included Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, looked incongruously formal in an arena filled with sweatshirts, U.F.C. gear and baseball caps.
Also in Mr. Trump’s circle was Dana White, the U.F.C. chief executive and a longtime friend, who has become close enough to the political operation that Mr. Trump invited him onstage in West Palm Beach, Fla., after his victory speech on election night. Mr. White used the moment to thank a handful of bro-culture podcasters, including the enormously popular Mr. Rogan.
Mr. Trump’s campaign aggressively courted young male voters, also a significant share of U.F.C.’s target audience, through podcast appearances, and the league’s cast of characters played a role in Mr. Trump’s campaign. Steven Cheung, Mr. Trump’s campaign spokesman and his pick for White House communications director, once worked in U.F.C.’s communications office.
English (US)