--- title: Trump Booed and Applauded at New York City UFC Fight description: The audience erupted into boos and cheers canonical: https://time.com/5717062/trump-ufc-booed-fight/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-03T16:06:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:41:33.105Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump's Arrival to a New York City UFC Fight Received a Very Mixed, Very Loud Reaction og:description: The audience erupted into boos and cheers og:url: https://time.com/5717062/trump-ufc-booed-fight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c2c7ece10cc44fd/698a0542e76ad207f8636bbf/ufc.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Donald-Trump-UFC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump's Arrival to a New York City UFC Fight Received a Very Mixed, Very Loud Reaction twitter:description: The audience erupted into boos and cheers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c2c7ece10cc44fd/698a0542e76ad207f8636bbf/ufc.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Arrival to a New York City UFC Fight Received a Very Mixed, Very Loud Reaction > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Nov 3, 2019 4:06 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump attends UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 02, 2019 in New York City. U.S. President Donald Trump attends UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 02, 2019 in New York City. Steven Ryan—Getty Images  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Nov 3, 2019 4:06 PM UTC Thousands of people packed into New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Saturday night to watch an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event, but the moment that might have caused the biggest stir happened out in the crowd: the arrival of President Donald Trump. The audience erupted into boos and cheers as the President entered the stadium to the song “Back in Black” by AC/DC and took a seat with his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as well as Republican politicians Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Rep. Peter King of New York and minority leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy. > [](https://twitter.com/joshuapotash/status/1190812382249000960) > [](https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1190811120312995840) > [](https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1190811924214304768) The headlining match, a face-off between stars Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, ultimately went to Masvidal after a doctor stopped the fight before the fourth round due to a cut near Diaz’s eye. But whether the boos or applause won out in the crowd seems to have depended on where you were sitting in the stadium, or your political perspective. While several media outlets reported that the President had [been primarily booed](https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1190981618258915328), Trump himself appears to have been pleased with the reception, tweeting on Sunday morning, “Walking into Madison Square Garden last night with @danawhite for the big @UFC Championship fight was a little bit like walking into a Trump Rally. Plenty of MAGA & KAG present. Great energy.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1191007372673720321) The hosts of the show [Fox and Friends](https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1190979416857419776) also agreed that the crowd had cheered for the President. “This is not a P.C. crowd, right here. This is a crowd that appreciates the brawler style of a brawler President,” said Pete Hegseth. As the President is facing an [impeachment inquiry](https://time.com/5713064/white-house-congress-impeachment/) in the House of Representatives, the audience’s big reaction to his presence hardly comes as a surprise. Just last week, Trump [was booed at a World Series game](https://time.com/5712054/trump-booed-nationals-game/) between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros in Washington, D.C. The UFC match, in particular, was especially loaded with meaning for Trump. It comes just days after news spread that Trump, a lifelong New Yorker, had declared his primary residence as Florida. Trump also has a long history with the UFC itself; he is credited with having given the sport a boost after he started hosting its events at his [defunct](https://time.com/4525067/trump-taj-mahal-closes/) Atlantic City venue, the [Trump Taj Mahal](https://time.com/4413988/republican-convention-speakers-tuesday/), in the 2000s. Outside of the stadium, the President also had a polarized reception from demonstrators. A gathered crowd held up a mix of “Trump 2020!” and “Impeach Trump” signs. Some [chanted](https://twitter.com/AP%5FSports/status/1190793602655571968) “Danger, danger! There’s a fascist in the White House!” while others [shouted](https://twitter.com/NESN/status/1190835921685532672) “four more years!” Fighter Masvidal, for his part, seemed to have been excited that the President was attending his fight. An avid Trump fan, he [told TMZ](https://www.tmz.com/2019/10/30/jorge-masvidal-president-donald-trump-honored-ufc-244/) before the fight that having the President in the audience was “humbling.” “No matter what your political views are, not every fighter can say, ‘Hey, the President is showing up to my fight,’ you know?” [Masvidal said](https://www.tmz.com/2019/10/30/jorge-masvidal-president-donald-trump-honored-ufc-244/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5717062/trump-ufc-booed-fight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5717062/trump-ufc-booed-fight/"},"headline":"President Trump's Arrival to a New York City UFC Fight Received a Very Mixed, Very Loud Reaction","datePublished":"2019-11-03T16:06:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:41:33.105Z","description":"The audience erupted into boos and cheers","url":"https://time.com/5717062/trump-ufc-booed-fight/","keywords":["New York","White House","onetime","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c2c7ece10cc44fd/698a0542e76ad207f8636bbf/ufc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c2c7ece10cc44fd/698a0542e76ad207f8636bbf/ufc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald-Trump-UFC","caption":"Donald Trump UFC","creditText":"Steven Ryan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/new-york/","name":"New York"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5717062/trump-ufc-booed-fight/","name":"President Trump's Arrival to a New York City UFC Fight Received a Very Mixed, Very Loud Reaction"}}]}] ```