Did Trump fall asleep during UFC fight at White House? We examined footage

On June 14, 2026, the White House South Lawn was transformed into a cage-fighting arena. U.S. President Donald Trump pushed for the unprecedented UFC event to mark a dual birthday celebration: his 80th and the United States’ 250th.

The event featured seven fights, concluding with a bout for the lightweight championship. Though Trump attended the event, posts on social media suggested it wasn’t holding the president’s attention, with video footage supposedly showing him sleeping during a fight. 

Snopes readers also asked us to investigate whether Trump truly dozed off during the fight.

We were unable to authenticate the footage that supposedly showed Trump asleep. Therefore, we’ve left this claim unrated.

The event was available to watch on Paramount+, where cameras occasionally caught Trump sitting next to the cage with UFC boss Dana White throughout the night. While the president’s eyes appeared closed at some moments, he was clearly awake at others. A Getty Images photo also captured a moment where Trump’s eyes appeared shut.

However, the social media video did not originate from the official Paramount+ broadcast and its source remained unverified as of this writing. Because the official broadcast followed the action of the fights, it did not capture continuous footage of Trump. Furthermore, during the brief moments Trump was visible, the footage was often too grainy and out of focus to definitively confirm whether Trump was actually asleep or merely had his eyes downcast. 

Because we were unable to view a high-quality camera angle of the event in which Trump was always visible, Snopes cannot rate the claim. We contacted the X account that originally shared the footage, Call to Activism, to ask where it had obtained the footage, but had not heard back at the time of publication. 

The photo of Trump with his eyes closed was taken during the fight between Bo Nickal and Kyle Daukaus, which we investigated first. We also cross-referenced a different video claiming to show Trump asleep in the final moments of that bout. 

At the 18-second mark of the Call to Activism footage, one of the fighters moved into the frame and the last three letters of his last name, “KIT,” were visible on his boxing shorts. Therefore, the footage, if real, would have come from the bout between Josh Hokit and Derrick Lewis. 

Snopes analyzed the footage from both fights. We were unable to publish images of the fights for visual reference because Paramount+ prevents users from taking screenshots. 

Nickal vs. Daukaus

During the Nickal-Daukaus bout, Trump appeared briefly on the Paramount+ footage at 4:40 left in the first round. He did not appear again until the fight was over. 

The actions of the final moments matched those in the second social media video we found on Threads (archived).

In that video, the fighter wearing white shorts appeared to recoil from a blow (that’s Daukaus dodging a punch with 0:39 left in the round), before being taken down by his opponent wearing red gloves about 10 seconds later. 

The referee pulled Nickal off Daukaus a few seconds later and declared him the winner by TKO. After the fight, Nickal exited the ring, shook hands with Trump and thanked him. 

There was additional footage available. The USA Today watermark visible on the social media video led us to an article on the news outlet’s website that showed the last few seconds of the fight, when Nickal landed a final few blows on Daukaus. That video showed White saying something to Trump at the moment the referee pulled Nickal off Daukaus, to which Trump quickly looked up and nodded. 

Still, the footage was far too grainy to tell whether Trump was asleep.

Hokit vs. Lewis

Trump was visible several times during the Hokit-Lewis fight, first appearing on the right side of the frame with 4:12 left in the first round. His eyes appeared closed and his body was slumped over to his right, roughly matching his posture in the social media video. That shot followed Hokit for the next 22 seconds, with Trump occasionally disappearing and then reappearing on the edge of the frame. He did not appear to move or change position throughout the shot and remained slumped over. 

Trump briefly reappeared with about 3:20 left in the first round, but disappeared again after a few seconds. He still looked like he was slumped over to his right.

At 2:49 left in the first round, the stream switched to an angle outside the fighting enclosure, adding a layer of fencing between the camera and Trump that further obscured the view. Trump was visible in the shot for 10 seconds or so, but the footage was even grainier, and it was unclear whether his eyes were open or if his posture had changed. That same angle reappeared with 2:27 left in the first round, leaving Trump visible for about 20 seconds. His posture appeared to have changed, but it was difficult to determine this with certainty due to the fencing and the grain.

With 0:48 left in the first round, Trump was visible again. This time, he was clearly awake because he turned to say something to White.

In the second round, Trump first appeared with around 3:30 left and was again talking to White. He was visible one final time before the fight ended with 2:17 left in the second round.

Hokit knocked Lewis down with 0:54 left in the second round and was declared the winner by TKO.

After the fight, Hokit shook hands with Trump and spoke to him briefly before reentering the ring for a post-fight interview with podcaster and former MMA fighter Joe Rogan. At the end of the interview, he repeated the false conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama, is transgender.

This type of rumor isn’t new for Trump or Snopes. We’ve previously investigated claims that Trump fell asleep during the 2024 Republican National Convention, a December 2025 Cabinet meeting and a June 2026 Oval Office announcement, among other events.

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