By Maria Tsvetkova and Steve Holland
NEW YORK (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump celebrated his election victory on Saturday evening by attending an Final Combating Championship occasion with billionaire good friend Elon Musk and cheering followers at a closely guarded Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis.
Identified by some within the blended martial arts world because the “Combatant in Chief,” Trump counts UFC President Dana White as an in depth good friend and considers followers of the game a part of his political base. Trump sat between White and Musk and paid rapt consideration to the fights.
He entered the sector to loud music and waved to the group, a lot of whom returned the gesture. Amongst these becoming a member of him had been Home of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Musk, an in depth Trump adviser, singer Child Rock and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he plans to appoint for secretary of Well being and Human Providers.
Trump did some dance strikes as his signature marketing campaign track, “YMCA,” performed over the loudspeaker. He ultimately sat down and was speaking animatedly to Musk.
His go to to the storied Manhattan enviornment introduced him again to the scene of a controversial marketing campaign rally he held there on Oct. 27, when a warm-up comic mocked Puerto Rico as a “floating island of rubbish.”
Saturday’s headline occasion within the octagon at UFC 309 was a battle for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.
A Trump aide posted a photograph on social media displaying Trump watching a few of the undercard fights whereas seated on his aircraft subsequent to Kennedy.
A handful of tourists in Madison Sq. Backyard, an enviornment with a seating capability of practically 20,000, wore crimson “Make America Nice Once more” hats.
One in all them, Sean Allen, 22, traveled to the occasion from Monroe in upstate New York, the place he lives and works for a county division.
He stated he had voted for Trump and borrowed his MAGA hat from a good friend after studying that the Republican president-elect, who gained a decisive victory on Nov. 5 over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, may come to the battle.
“I’d by no means voted earlier than. That was my first time voting,” Allen stated, including that he might have voted on the earlier election however didn’t care about politics.
“Once I awakened, I used to be like, OK, wow, Trump gained massive.”
Nicholas Defilippo, 39, one other customer in a MAGA hat, additionally put it on to specific his assist for Trump after voting for him. Defilippo lives in New Jersey and works in legislation enforcement.
“He’s probably the most brave man on the planet,” he stated of Trump.
The president-elect’s self-styled “Trump Power One” aircraft left Palm Seashore airport shortly after dusk for the two-hour flight. It was solely the second time Trump has left the Palm Seashore, Florida, space since profitable the presidential election on Nov. 5.
The 78-year-old Republican flew to Washington on Wednesday to satisfy with President Joe Biden on the White Home, and has in any other case been filling cupboard positions for his incoming administration from his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort.
A heavy safety presence was in place round Madison Sq. Backyard.
