Al Sharpton Compares White House UFC Event to Slave Fights
Reverend Al Sharpton compared President Trump's planned White House UFC event to slavery-era entertainment and criticized his display of Andrew Jackson's portrait during an MSNBC appearance.
During a Thursday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sharpton accused Trump and Republicans of attempting to drag America back to a more racist past, linking the criticism to ongoing redistricting disputes and the president’s admiration for historical figure Andrew Jackson.
Trump and others are trying to bring us back to an America that we struggled to get out of, Sharpton stated on the program.
The reverend claimed Trump’s hosting of a UFC event at the White House connected directly to the same political motivations driving current redistricting battles. In a particularly inflammatory comparison, Sharpton suggested the event evoked images of entertainment staged for slave masters.
He argued that organizers of the White House lawn fights were deliberately recalling an era when enslaved people were forced to fight for the amusement of their owners, adding that the current administration was literally regressing to that period.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski attempted to bolster Sharpton’s narrative by connecting his remarks to immigration enforcement actions under the Trump administration, pointing to recent raids playing out across American streets.
Andrew Jackson Portrait Criticism
Sharpton also revisited Trump’s first-term Oval Office decorating choices as supposed evidence of the president’s political vision. He noted that one of the first actions Trump took after his 2016 election was hanging a portrait of President Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office.
The civil rights activist highlighted Jackson’s status as a slave-owning president who nominated Roger Taney to the Supreme Court. Taney subsequently became the chief justice who authored the notorious Dred Scott decision, as New York Post reports.
Sharpton questioned why Trump’s decision to prominently feature Jackson received insufficient scrutiny at the time, claiming he did not even remember reading about Jackson in elementary school.
He framed Jackson’s presence in Trump’s Oval Office as symbolic of a broader agenda to return America to an earlier era, urging resistance against what he characterized as the president’s vision.
White House UFC Event Details
The UFC event that sparked Sharpton’s commentary is scheduled for June 14 on the White House South Lawn. The event forms part of celebrations marking America’s 250th anniversary.
Fox News contacted the Trump administration seeking comment on Sharpton’s allegations but had not received a response at the time of reporting.
With information from New York Post
