But in Trump’s second term, his birthday has taken on a holiday-like significance in and around the White House.
Last year, he finally got the military parade down Constitution Avenue that he wanted in his first term — and it was held on his birthday.
And this Sunday, Trump will commemorate his 80th birthday with an extravaganza unlike anything ever held on the White House grounds: a night of seven Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts matches in a makeshift Octagon arena on the South Lawn under an elaborate, light-emitting structure known as “the claw” that looks like a red-white-and-blue spaceship.
“I think his ego is out of control,” said Representative Jim McGovern, a Worcester Democrat. “Everything has to be about him.”
Trump, a lover of military hardware and UFC fights, says the timing of his second-term birthday events is just a coincidence. He notes June 14 is also the birthday of the US Army — hence the date of last year’s parade — as well as Flag Day, a somewhat obscure day of national observance, which is cited as the reason for Sunday’s event as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration this year.
“Everyone said, ‘Oh, he did it for his birthday. … It happens to be Flag Day,” Trump said in May during a Fox News interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, after she pointed out the UFC Freedom 250 event “coincides with your 80th birthday, which is incredible.”
“That happens to be my birthday, but that happened to be the best night for it,” he said of the UFC fights, which typically are held on Saturday nights. “And it’s going to be something that’s going to be very exciting.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican and close Trump ally, said the president is just looking for new ways to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
“Everything’s so contentious up here, so I think he’s trying to lighten it up, giving people opportunity to do different things,” said Tuberville, who had hoped to attend the UFC event but had to be back in his home state, where he’s running for governor. “Let’s have some fun.”
The UFC event is another example of Trump’s lack of restraint in his second term. He, and those around him, have been more inclined to indulge his personal interests, from launching construction projects such as the White House ballroom and the triumphal arch to becoming the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl and the NBA Finals despite the significant security concerns.
“The spectacle of building a UFC stage while the East Wing has been destroyed, a picture is worth, in this case, a million words,” Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said of the demolition required to make room for Trump’s estimated $400 billion ballroom. Trump said that the project is being funded by private donations.
The UFC event will cost at least $60 million, with UFC and affiliated groups paying the cost, the National Park Service said in a filing in a lawsuit by two Virginia residents seeking to stop the event from taking place.
White House spokesperson Olivia Wales noted the full private funding for UFC Freedom 250, saying it “will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history, and President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former longtime personal attorney and fixer, agreed the president is less restrained. But Cohen believes Trump when he says it’s just a coincidence that the UFC fight and last year’s military parade are on his birthday.
“For a decade and a half, every year for Mr. Trump’s birthday, I would bring in a Carvel vanilla ice cream cake with chocolate crunchies, as it is not only my favorite, it happens to be his as well,” said Cohen, who had a falling out with Trump in his first term. “Except he hated every year that I did it because he doesn’t like to celebrate his birthday.”
Still, before Cohen began the tradition in 2006, Trump had a history of some extravagant birthday parties.
In 1988, he celebrated his 42nd birthday with a bash at one of his Atlantic City casinos that The Washington Post said “were to be kicked off with a 15-foot spaceship zooming from the stage to hover amid smoke and flashing lasers above the birthday boy and his wife, Ivana.”
For Trump’s 50th birthday in 1996, “He just decided he wanted to do a big blowout,” his wife at the time, Marla Trump, told The New York Times. “He never changes.”
A correspondent for Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald described “a small gathering for the tycoon and about 1,000 of his closest friends.”
“As the Superman theme began to resound throughout the atrium, a multi-level birthday cake was wheeled to the fore — topped with a sugar model of Trump himself, dressed as Superman, a dollar sign emblazoned on his chest,” the reporter wrote. As singer and actress Eartha Kitt sang “Happy Birthday” to Trump, 600 golden balloons showered down from the ceiling.
“He always had birthday parties and talked about them for a while afterward, but I confess that I was never invited to them,” Charlie Black, a Republican strategist who worked as a political adviser to Trump in the 1990s, told the Globe in an email.
In 2005, a birthday party at his Trump Taj Mahal casino featured a few hundred guests and “a stage in the shape of a 15-foot, three-tier cake,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. And in 2024, while campaigning to return to the White House, Trump had a birthday party at a convention center in West Palm Beach, Fla., attended by about 5,000 people that featured a multilayered cake topped by a red MAGA hat.
“This is the biggest birthday party I’ve ever had by far,” Trump told the crowd.
Shortly after Trump returned to the White House in 2025, Representative Claudia Tenney, a Republican from upstate New York, introduced the “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act” to designate June 14 as a federal holiday. The legislation has no cosponsors.
A few months later, during the military parade in Washington, attendees sang “Happy Birthday” to Trump after he finished his remarks from a reviewing stand on Constitution Avenue. First lady Melania Trump smiled, but Trump did not.
On Thursday, Trump said he wasn’t looking forward to his own birthday on Sunday, although he appeared excited about the UFC fight.
In a video posted to X on Thursday by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Trump invited him to the Sunday night event and wished him a happy birthday. Oz turned 66 on Thursday.
“And you don’t have to wish me a happy birthday because I’m not happy about that birthday that I’m having,” Trump said as they both sat in the Oval Office. “It’s not a number I like, but I’m here nevertheless.”
Oz then walked outside and motioned to the giant UFC claw nearby.
“It’s my birthday, but it’s really his birthday, obviously,” Oz said. “There’s going to be a big celebration there just a few days away. Lots of fun.”
Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.