Seven fights on the South Lawn: Trump prepares for UFC birthday spectacle at White House

Show goes on for Trump’s 80th birthday event – featuring a 92ft ‘Claw’, thousands of seats and a fighting cage – despite ominous weather forecasts

There may be swarms of bugs, rain showers and thunderstorms, but this isn’t Exodus, or the apocalypse: the president of the United States will host the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the White House on Sunday, his 80th birthday.

The iconic South Lawn – typically used by presidents to board Marine One on their way to summits, funerals and wars – has been blanketed by an octagon, ringed by thousands of seats in a mini coliseum, and dominated by a 92ft, 600-ton steel structure organizers have nicknamed “the Claw”, not unlike the alien tripods from the 2005 film War of the Worlds.