{"id":523,"date":"2026-06-12T09:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=523"},"modified":"2026-06-12T09:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T09:39:40","slug":"thank-you-for-your-attention-to-this-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=523","title":{"rendered":"Thank You For Your Attention to This Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Donald Trump is old<\/span>. The president turns 80 on Sunday, becoming the second man to mark that milestone birthday in office. The other, of course, was his predecessor, Joe Biden. Neither particularly likes to be reminded of his age, and both have had White House aides furiously try to stymie any attempts to question their fitness for office. But that\u2019s about where the similarities end when it comes to how each man prepared to ring in his ninth decade.<\/p>\n

Read more The Kennedy Center Is a Metaphor for De-Trumpification<\/a><\/p>\n

Biden said little about his 80th as it approached, in November 2022, as if wishing to avoid contributing to the debate over whether he was too old to seek reelection. He stayed out of sight and quietly marked the occasion with an understated brunch that fell between his granddaughter\u2019s wedding and a Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket. Trump, however, is building an illuminated octagon with a 92-foot-tall portable-canopy stage, known as the \u201cClaw,\u201d on the White House South Lawn, where he and thousands of spectators will watch half-naked men brutally assault each other. To each their own, I guess.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s fight night is not solely for his birthday; it\u2019s part of several weeks of events in Washington, D.C., to mark the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary\u2014and, hey, it\u2019s also Flag Day. But it\u2019s mostly about celebrating Trump, who first suggested staging a UFC fight at the White House not long after he won the 2024 election. The White House soon connected the fight with the birthdays of Trump and the nation. The more than $60 million event is so<\/em> Trump<\/em>; he is fond of over-the-top spectacles, he\u2019s pals with UFC President and CEO Dana White, and he has attended multiple mixed martial arts fights across his two terms (I was in the press pool covering one in 2019 when a fighter got knocked unconscious right in front of us).<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certainly getting a spectacle. The Claw towers over the executive mansion and has clear sight lines to the Washington Monument. It\u2019s lit up in patriotic red, white, and blue, and sometimes blasts Vegas-nightclub-style spotlights into the sky. The bleachers can seat 4,300 people for seven fights on Sunday night. A few of the fighters may even enter the octagon from the Oval Office. For some, this is Trump\u2019s latest assault on the character and history of \u201cthe People\u2019s House,\u201d following the destruction of the East Wing for a proposed ballroom and the paving over of the Rose Garden for a dinner patio. Last week, Trump compared the Claw to the Eiffel Tower and joked (I think?) that, just like the Paris landmark, the stage could be a temporary attraction turned permanent part of his ongoing effort to remake Washington in his image.<\/p>\n

Although it\u2019s unlikely that Trump will publicly dwell on his advancing age, he\u2019s certainly not hiding from his birthday. This is all part of an in-your-face presidency, one meant to dominate and overwhelm, to blot out the sun. Prices are high, the Iran war is not going well, Republicans are panicking over November\u2019s midterms, and polls show that a majority of Americans believe that the president\u2019s priorities are misplaced. But Trump doesn\u2019t care. He is simply doing what he wants, which is to be the center of all things, political consequences be damned.<\/p>\n

The president has told<\/span> confidants that he has become more aware of his mortality since he was nearly assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania, two summers ago. His first term seems downright docile compared with the frenetic pace at which he is conducting Trump 2.0. A longtime Trump friend told me, on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, that the president \u201ccan hear the clock ticking.\u201d Trump knows that term limits will end his time in office, the friend explained, but the president \u201ccan read an actuarial table too.\u201d Trump\u2019s parents lived until they were 93 (his dad) and 88 (his mom). Questions have begun to swirl about Trump\u2019s own health, focused on his bruised hands and swollen ankles and penchant for dozing off in front of the White House press pool. Whatever the motivation, Trump seems focused on cramming in as much as he can as quickly as he can\u2014and racing to accumulate presidential power and wealth for himself and his family.<\/p>\n

Trump has cut back on domestic travel, he is doing little to campaign for fellow Republicans, and he barely made an effort to sell this Congress\u2019s signature piece of legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to the country. He holds fewer rallies than he once did, causing him to lose connection with his supporters while he surrounds himself with sycophants and rich friends. When he does leave the White House, in most cases it\u2019s to go to one of his own clubs or a luxury box at a sporting event. (On Monday, he showed up at Madison Square Garden for an NBA Finals game and was blamed by some for ending the New York Knicks\u2019 13-game winning streak. When he skipped Wednesday\u2019s game, the Knicks responded with a record-setting comeback win.) Trump has become obsessed with seeking vengeance against his political foes and has abandoned his promise to bring prices down, even mocking the nation\u2019s affordability crisis. Many Midterm elections are decided based on the economy, and Republicans have cringed when Trump, in recent days, has said things such as, \u201cI don\u2019t think about Americans\u2019 financial situation,\u201d and, \u201cI love the inflation.\u201d The GOP is now at risk of losing both chambers of Congress.<\/p>\n

Read more Atlantic Trivia: Sweet Tooth for Fruit<\/a><\/p>\n

But Trump seems indifferent to the criticisms and is instead focused on his entry in the history books. He\u2019s drawn to attempting to achieve things that his predecessors could not, including seizing territory for the United States (Greenland, for sure, but maybe Canada, too) and toppling antagonistic regimes (Venezuela, Iran, possibly Cuba). But the war in Iran has not gone according to plan: The hard-liners in Tehran have been emboldened as oil prices have soared. Efforts to bring the conflict to a close have so far failed. This week, hostilities reignited. And back at home, Trump has treated the nation\u2019s capital as his own plaything, restoring the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, adding his name to the Kennedy Center (only to have a judge order its removal), and planning to build a triumphal arch that would obscure the view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.<\/p>\n

Which is why, I suppose, he thought nothing of using the nation\u2019s most symbolic address as the backdrop for his bloody birthday bash.<\/p>\n

President Theodore Roosevelt<\/span> had been a boxer at Harvard and would occasionally spar at the White House. But, to the best of my knowledge, Trump is the first president to toast his birthday with a blood sport. Some took Biden\u2019s low-key approach; Jimmy Carter, for instance, treated his birthday like any other workday, save for a piece of pistachio cake. Neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln was fond of public celebrations for their own birthdays (yet they became federal holidays anyway; it\u2019s a safe bet that Trump wouldn\u2019t object to such honors).<\/p>\n

But other presidents have gone big: Ronald Reagan, who held the title of oldest president until Biden and Trump came along, didn\u2019t shy away from birthdays and hosted a big gathering for his 75th. One of Lyndon B. Johnson\u2019s birthdays fell on the final day of the 1964 Democratic National Convention, so he accepted his nomination in front of a celebrating, singing crowd. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose time in office was defined by the Great Depression and World War II, used his birthdays as fundraising events that eventually became the March of Dimes. Years later, Bill Clinton turned 50 with a fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall. Barack Obama celebrated the same milestone with a star-studded outdoor barbecue on the same lawn that now hosts the UFC cage. The most famous presidential birthday party was for John F. Kennedy\u2019s 45th, a fundraiser held at Madison Square Garden that will be forever remembered for Marilyn Monroe\u2019s sultry rendition of \u201cHappy Birthday, Mr. President.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assuming that the weather cooperates (thunderstorms are in the forecast), how will history recall Trump\u2019s festivities? Perhaps they will be remembered as an ideal representation of his id, or as a testament to excess at a time of war and economic worry. Or maybe the UFC fights will become a historical curiosity that\u2019s remembered mainly by the fighters, their broken bones and bloodied noses souvenirs of the night they did battle in a makeshift cage outside the White House.<\/p>\n

Read more Why 60 Minutes Shouldn\u2019t Ignore the Accusations of Bias<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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