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A few hours before the first fight, Shane Gillis and Kid Rock made their way through the VIP line outside the White House. When asked how he scored a ticket, Gillis told a CNN reporter, \u201cI swear, I don\u2019t know.\u201d Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian whose infamous speech at Trump\u2019s Madison Square Garden rally during the 2024 campaign stole the headlines, smoked a cigarette outside. They joined a crowd of Trump officials, cabinet members, and members of the president\u2019s family, from Jared Kushner to Kai Trump, his golfing granddaughter. Paul Ingrassia, the Trump administration official whose leaked texts revealed he self-described as having a \u201cNazi streak,\u201d struggled to get his female companion admitted. He pleaded with an attendant, who said she did not recognize the names he was dropping. \u201cThis came directly from the president,\u201d he said eventually. Major celebrities were mostly absent from the event after White said in a recent interview that he\u2019d invited a number of stars<\/a>: Adam Sandler, Guy Ritchie, Tom Brady, Jared Leto, Jason Statham, Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson, and Mario Lopez. It did not appear that any showed up.<\/p>\n The UFC paid for the event, but security and other costs borne by taxpayers will run north of $10 million<\/a>. The festivities were chock full of the kind of self-dealing and pay-for-play we\u2019ve come to expect from the second Trump presidency. On the official broadcast, a UFC announcer read a promotion for World Liberty Financial, the Trump family\u2019s cryptocurrency firm. Fighters will be paid bonuses in a Trump-backed currency. The Trump Organization is selling commemorative coins bearing Trump\u2019s face priced as high as $12,000. Companies spent more than $1 million for sponsorship packages.<\/p>\n