Celebrities Skip Trump’s Big UFC Bash

The president’s big birthday event is looking almost empty. A‑list stars that were supposed to show up for the UFC fight are saying no. Dana White, who runs the UFC, said that people like Adam Sandler, Guy Ritchie, Tom Brady, Jared Leto, Jason Statham, Dwayne Johnson and Mario Lopez were invited. But a source told the paper that Johnson will not come. Sandler, Leto and Lopez also declined. White has two hundred tickets to give away, while the president can hand out a thousand. That makes it hard for Trump to fill the arena with famous faces. The fight is huge – worth sixty million dollars – and will take place on June 14 in a big open‑air ring built on the White House lawn.It marks Trump’s 80th birthday and America’s 250th year of independence. The same pattern happened earlier when Trump cancelled a big music show on the National Mall. Many singers, such as Milli Vanilli and Bret Michaels, backed out after learning the event would be political. Trump had promised it was nonpartisan, but he later said the performers were not good enough. Now the president is left with a few local singers and a very small opera star instead of Hollywood names. The event will still go on, but it may not have the celebrity buzz people expected.