Summary
- The Trump family is promoting commemorative coins priced up to $12,000 for the White House UFC fight this weekend.
- The coins are being marketed as a collaboration between UFC and the Trump Organization, run by the president’s sons.
- The event coincides with Trump’s 80th birthday and is being promoted as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
As President Donald Trump prepares to host a UFC fight at the White House this week, his family is promoting a venture aimed at profiting off the spectacle by selling gold coins priced as high as $12,000.
The “Freedom 250”-themed silver and gold medallions feature Trump’s face and are being marketed as a collaboration between the UFC and the Trump Organization, which is run by the president’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
The coins, which are being sold in advance of Sunday’s fight, have been dubbed “Trump Coins” on a website that also boasts they were “designed by President Trump.” There are four coins for sale, ranging from a silver one that costs nearly $250 to a $11,999.99 gold medallion whose holder comes with a portrait of Trump and UFC chief Dana White.
The Trump Organization appears only to be licensing the president’s brand for the coins and is not manufacturing or selling them.
But the collaboration marks the Trump family’s latest involvement in efforts to cash in on his return to the White House — and yet another example of the president’s eagerness to put his name on an array of products, events and initiatives related to his administration.
Trump’s sons have licensed his name to promote phones, fragrances, cryptocurrency, golf courses and a range of other business ventures, drawing scrutiny for the unprecedented profits the Trump family has reaped through their close association with the commander in chief.
In response to questions about Trump’s involvement in the coin’s design and marketing, White House spokesman Davis Ingle rejected any suggestion of a conflict of interest.
“The Fake News’ continued attempts to fabricate conflicts of interest are irresponsible and reinforce the public’s distrust in what they read,” he said, adding that “Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.”
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has talked up the UFC fight for weeks, while closely overseeing the construction of a giant staging area on the White House South Lawn called “The Claw” that now towers over the executive mansion.
And while the event is billed as part of the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, it is also set to take place on Trump’s 80th birthday.
That has prompted a lawsuit filed by two Virginia residents seeking to stop the fight. They argue it will financially benefit White and Trump, citing a report from the spring that Trump bought $50,000 in stock in UFC’s parent company.
The fight “is not in any material sense a ‘celebration of the 250th anniversary of American Independence’—it is, instead, a celebration of the UFC’s brand and the 80th anniversary of Donald Trump’s birth,” the lawsuit alleges.
A federal judge has ordered the administration to respond to the lawsuit by Tuesday evening.
In the meantime, Trump and the UFC have pressed ahead as planned — as has the Trump Organization’s coin collaboration, which sought on its website to box out any competitors by asserting its product was the only one approved by the president himself.
“These are the only officially licensed Donald J. Trump medallions on the market,” the website reads. “Other Trump-themed bullion or numismatic products might be unlawful, and more importantly, none of them has an actual connection to Donald J. Trump – ours are the only medallions authorized and endorsed/designed by President Trump himself.”
