Marjorie Taylor Greene criticizes Trump’s 80th birthday UFC event on White House lawn

Marjorie Taylor Greene has criticized Donald Trump’s plan to hold a UFC fight on the White House lawn, as the president prepares to host seven fights on Sunday.

The former rightwing Republican congresswoman, a once fierce defender of Trump who turned on him towards the end of her time in office, told NewsNation the location is inappropriate for the mixed martial arts event.

“I think UFC fights are great. I enjoy watching them, but to be honest with you, I don’t really think they belong on the White House lawn,” Greene said in an interview published on Saturday.

“And I don’t think Americans’ taxpayer dollars should have to be paying for that. We have a lot of other important things that we should pay for.”

She added: “However, I do hope it’s a great event, and of course I always wish the president well, I wish everyone well, so we’ll see how the event unrolls.”

The UFC bout is being held on Trump’s 80th birthday, although the government has billed it as a celebration of the US’s 250th anniversary. Dana White, the CEO of UFC, has said the event was Trump’s idea.

Greene represented Georgia in Congress until she resigned in January. A far-right, QAnon-adjacent Republican, she was a staunch supporter of Trump but had a public fallout with the president after breaking with him after she criticized the government’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. On Wednesday, Greene told CNN that lawmakers are “traitors” for failing to release more documents on Epstein.

Attorneys from the Public Integrity Project, a non-profit, had filed a lawsuit to stop the UFC fight from taking place, but on Friday a federal judge said the event could go ahead. Earlier this month a found that just 16% of Americans considered the event to be appropriate.