By Maria Tsvetkova and Steve Holland
NEW YORK (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump arrived at a heavily guarded Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday night to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship event and celebrate his election victory with many of his supporters.
Known by some in the mixed martial arts world as the “Combatant in Chief,” Trump counts UFC President Dana White as a close friend and considers fans of the sport part of his political base.
Trump entered the arena to loud music and waved to the crowd, many of whom returned the gesture. Among those joining him were House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, Tesla (NASDAQ:) CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser, singer Kid Rock and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he plans to nominate for secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump did some dance moves as his signature campaign song, “YMCA,” played over the loudspeaker. He eventually sat down and was talking animatedly to Musk.
His visit to the storied Manhattan arena brought him back to the scene of a controversial campaign rally he held there on Oct. 27, when a warm-up comedian mocked Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Saturday’s headline event in the octagon at UFC 309 is a battle for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.
A Trump aide posted a photo on social media showing Trump watching some of the undercard fights while seated on his plane next to Kennedy.
A handful of visitors in Madison Square Garden, an arena with a seating capacity of nearly 20,000, wore red “Make America Great Again” hats.
One of them, Sean Allen, 22, traveled to the event from Monroe in upstate New York, where he lives and works for a county department.
He said he had voted for Trump and borrowed his MAGA hat from a friend after learning that the Republican president-elect, who won a decisive victory on Nov. 5 over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, might come to the fight.
“Iâ€d never voted before. That was my first time voting,†Allen said, adding that he could have voted at the previous election but did not care about politics.
“When I woke up, I was like, OK, wow, Trump won big.â€
Nicholas Defilippo, 39, another visitor in a MAGA hat, also put it on to express his support for Trump after voting for him. Defilippo lives in New Jersey and works in law enforcement.
“Heâ€s the most courageous man on the planet,†he said of Trump.
The president-elect’s self-styled “Trump Force One” plane left Palm Beach airport shortly after nightfall for the two-hour flight. It was only the second time Trump has left the Palm Beach, Florida, area since winning the presidential election on Nov. 5.
The 78-year-old Republican flew to Washington on Wednesday to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House, and has otherwise been filling cabinet positions for his incoming administration from his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort.
A heavy security presence was in place around Madison Square Garden in anticipation of his arrival.
