Before USAID. Now UFC.
On June 11, the Secretary of State signed a formal agreement making the UFC an instrument of American diplomacy. In the midst of everything else, that was easy to miss.
On June 14, the South Lawn of the White House hosted a cage fight. Fighters arrived with military escorts. The president watched from ringside. Eighty-five thousand people gathered on the Ellipse to watch on giant screens. Most Americans — both those who celebrated and those who disdained this combined launch of America’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 80th birthday — did not realize it was also the launch of America’s new diplomatic partner.
Three days earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had stood at the State Department alongside Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding making UFC an official instrument of American diplomacy. Rubio called it “totally logical.” This, he said, is American soft power.
What Soft Power Used to Mean
In his 1961 inaugural address, President Kennedy made a pledge to the world’s poorest: “We pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves — not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.” That year, he established the United States Agency for International Development. For more than six decades, USAID built health systems, trained local institutions, responded to disasters, and invested in the conditions that allow developing countries to stabilize and grow.
In March 2025, the Trump administration terminated 83% of USAID’s 6,300 global programs. The Center for Global Development estimates the cuts could contribute to up to 700,000 additional deaths annually. Kenya lost access to its national health data systems — HIV tracking, malaria surveillance, patient records — not because of technical failure, but because Washington concluded that building a healthier, more stable world was no longer in the national interest.
What Replaced It
The full terms of the UFC MOU have not been made public. The State Department has said that UFC athletes and coaches will serve as sports ambassadors, traveling globally to lead training clinics and promote leadership skills among international youth. Rubio called UFC “the United Nations of fighting.” That is the extent of the public record.
What TKO Group Holdings president Mark Shapiro said was more specific: this was about earned media, new fans, and expanding viewership on Paramount+. The State Department is not a diplomatic partner in this arrangement. It is a marketing partner — lending the credibility of American foreign policy to a company whose stock the president holds, whose $1.1 billion-a-year broadcast deal depends on growing its global audience, and whose CEO described the entire enterprise as subscriber acquisition for a streaming platform.
The administration has made the open use of force the defining instrument of its immigration and foreign policy. For its celebration of America’s 250th birthday, it chose a sport in which the goal is to render your opponent unable to continue.
The question American soft power used to answer was: what can we offer? The question it now answers is: what are we trying to sell?
Endnotes
1. Kennedy inaugural address, January 20, 1961: JFK Library
2. USAID founding and mission, Kennedy’s pledge as the origin of the agency: Origins (Ohio State University), The Birth and Death of USAID
3. Trump administration terminates 83% of USAID’s 6,300 global programs: reported widely; see State Department restructuring announcements, March 2025.
4. Center for Global Development estimate of up to 700,000 additional deaths annually from USAID cuts: Center for Global Development, cgdev.org
5. Kenya health data systems loss — HIV tracking, malaria surveillance, patient records: reported in multiple outlets covering USAID program terminations, March 2025.
6. Rubio-White MOU signing, June 11, 2026; State Department press release and ceremony remarks: U.S. Department of State, Secretary Rubio to Participate in Signing Ceremony with Ultimate Fighting Championship
7. UFC MOU terms: UFC athletes and coaches as sports ambassadors, training clinics, leadership skills: OAN News, Rubio and Dana White Sign Deal Bringing ‘UFC Diplomacy’ to State Dept.
8. Mark Shapiro on earned media, subscriber acquisition, Paramount+: The Hollywood Reporter, quoted in The Hill, White House Cage Fight Cost Federal Agencies, UFC at Least $60M
9. Trump holds TKO Group Holdings stock; Paramount paying TKO $1.1 billion annually for broadcast rights, analysts estimated deal at 18–47% above market value: Yahoo Sports, Inside the UFC-Trump Alliance