By MAGGIE HABERMAN NYTimes News Service
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President Donald Trump, some of his Cabinet members and his adviser Elon Musk sat ringside in Miami late Saturday at the Ultimate Fighting Championship event — a spectacle of violence, throbbing music and cheering crowds that the president has long admired.

It’s the second UFC event that Trump has attended since he was elected for a second time in November and the first of his presidency. Unlike World Wrestling Entertainment events, UFC matches aren’t staged.

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Trump has been a fan of UFC fights for years. He attended one in late 2019 in New York City during his first presidency. And he brought the CEO of UFC, Dana White, onstage to speak during his victory speech on election night in 2024.

But the scene Saturday was emblematic of a president who is increasingly emboldened, brazen and encouraging of displays of force to carry out his agenda, particularly on immigration and crime.

Trump walked into the Kaseya Center to the booming sounds of the Kid Rock song “American Bad Ass” and to sustained, thunderous applause from the crowd. He sat next to Musk, who had brought one of his 14 children. They sat with the FBI director, Kash Patel; Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former senator from Florida; the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife, actress Cheryl Hines. Also in the Trump entourage was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

When Trump first arrived, he tried to shake Kennedy’s hand; Kennedy was looking in the other direction. Trump then walked past the outstretched hand of Hines, moving his gaze past her entirely despite appearing to see her.

Hines held up her hand in confusion and looked at her husband. Kennedy brought Hines over to say hello to Trump a few moments later, and they spoke cordially, but the apparent snub had already ricocheted across social media.

Trump stayed for the five main card fights, which lasted until roughly 1 a.m. Sunday.

After the first two fights, the winners scaled the octagonal fence around the ring and opened their arms to the crowd like gladiators. Trump pointed at them and smiled approvingly. Musk reposted on X, the social media site he owns, video of a brutal punch thrown by California-born Dominick Reyes against Nikita Krylov, a Ukrainian fighter, that quickly ended their bout, the first of the night that Trump witnessed.

Reyes posed for photos with Trump outside the ring after his victory.

In the second fight, Bryce Mitchell, an Arkansas-born fighter and a vocal supporter of Trump for many years, was beaten by his opponent, Jean Silva, a Brazilian.

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