The parent company of UFC took a major financial hit from staging President Donald Trump’s 250th America anniversary fight on the White House lawn.
TKO Group Holdings revealed the hit during a Monday earnings call, reported The Hill on Tuesday. Chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer explaining the June 14 “Freedom 250” card came with a hefty price tag the company had already anticipated.
“We incurred significantly higher-than-normal costs, which we partially offset with sold-out global partnerships inventory,” Schleimer said.
Production costs alone ran about $60 million for the invite-only event, which Trump attended alongside longtime friend and UFC CEO Dana White on Trump’s birthday. Roughly 4,000 guests — including administration officials, members of Congress, business executives and military servicemembers — watched the fights from an octagon set up on the South Lawn, but the general public couldn’t buy tickets, leaving the event with no live-gate revenue.
That absence of ticket sales dragged down TKO’s live events and hospitality revenue, which fell from $58.5 million in the second quarter of 2025 to $47.8 million this year, according to the company’s earnings report. Higher athlete and production costs also pulled TKO’s adjusted EBITDA margin down from 59 percent to 52 percent year-over-year.
The Trump administration came under massive criticism for staging the fight, part of a series of events Trump did as part of commandeering the originally nonpartisan America250 celebrations into his own, partisan Freedom 250 festivities. His centerpiece, the Great American State Fair, saw dismal turnout and a series of logistical setbacks.
Despite the financial hit, TKO executives spent much of the earnings call framing the event as a win. President and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro touted more than $1 billion in “earned media value” generated by the spectacle and said it added 25 new marketing partners to the company’s roster, many locking in multi-year deals.
White has since said UFC won’t be staging a repeat, given the cost.