Ivanka Trump has been sharpening her Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills.
And while her moves may not be on display for the occasion, she’ll play a key role when the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a professional mixed-martial arts organization, stages its fight on the White House grounds as part of America’s 250th birthday celebrations.
The first daughter will be involved in the planning of the historic UFC fight on July 4, 2026, a White House official told USA TODAY.
President Donald Trump first introduced the idea of hosting the UFC fight last month while talking about special events around the country to celebrate the anniversary of American independence.
“I even think we’re going to have a UFC fight,” he said during an Iowa rally last month.
“We’re going to have a UFC fight. Think of this – on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there,” he said. “It’s gonna be a championship fight, full fight, like 20-25,000 people.”
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The president is known to be fascinated with the sport, having attended three UFC events since his election in November. At the Republican National Convention, Dana White, the president of the organization, introduced him to the crowd.
White told CBS Mornings that he had chatted with Trump about the event on Aug. 11, and was planning to visit Washington, D.C., toward the end of the month to discuss details with the president and his daughter.
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“He said, ‘I want Ivanka in the middle of this,’” White told ‘CBS Mornings.’ “So Ivanka reached out to me, and her and I started talking about the possibilities.”
Meanwhile, Ivana Trump, also of fan of UFC – judging by her social media posts – has talked about her introduction into the martial arts.
A mother of three, Ivanka Trump, said her whole family got involved after her daughter Arabella began taking jiu-jitsu lessons.
“It’s almost like a moving meditation because the movements are so micro,” she said in an interview with the YouTube Jui Jitsu Channel. “It’s like three-dimensional chess. I’ll watch Ultimate Fighting and … see some of these moves are so subtle. It’s fun.”
Ivanka Trump, who served as a senior advisor in the White House during her father’s first term in office, has kept a low profile in the first six months of his second term. But that might be about to change.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ivanka Trump, a jiu-jitsu blue belt, to plan White House UFC fight
