In mid-April, roughly six weeks into the war with Iran, the White House deployed JD Vance and the administration’s diplomatic “A team” to Pakistan for direct negotiations with officials from Tehran. The talks proved pointless, and the vice president returned home empty-handed.

A day later, Donald Trump spoke with reporters outside the Oval Office and talked at some length about the issue foremost on his mind. “I’ve been involved in a lot of big events,” the president said. “I have never had an event that has had more interest than the UFC fight we have right at the front door.”

Pointing to the White House South Lawn, the Republican added, “Right there, they’re going to start building a 4,500-seat arena, and then in the back, at the Ellipse, we’re going to have 100,000, maybe 50,000 to 100,000 people, I guess. They’re building tremendous stages, and we’re going to have massive screens of the fight. It’s a very popular sport.”

It was one thing to hear Trump talk about the temporary construction project; it’s something else to see the endeavor actually take shape. Roughly six weeks after the president’s weird monologue about the UFC venue, The Associated Press reported:

Yet another White House construction project is underway, though this one is meant to be only temporary.

Crews are erecting an octagon-shaped cage on the South Lawn that will host next month’s UFC bout, helping mark the nation’s 250th anniversary — and President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

Tuesday, for the first time, the public could see elements of the project, including arcs that looked like pieces of an amusement park ride that hovered over the White House’s south facade.

The result was a truly bizarre visual: On the east side of the White House complex, there’s a giant construction project underway, with Trump desperate to build a ballroom vanity project where the East Wing once stood. On the west side of the White House complex, there’s a patio redesigned to resemble outdoor space at Mar-a-Lago where the Rose Garden used to be.

And in between, there’s the construction of a giant octagon, where professional fighters will entertain the president on his 80th birthday.

In 1998, the late David Broder criticized Bill Clinton in a memorable way. “He came in here and he trashed the place — and it’s not his place,” the longtime Washington Post columnist said of the Democratic president.

Broder, of course, was being metaphorical about Clinton and his impact at the White House. A generation later, the incumbent Republican president is actually trashing the place.

As for tickets for the upcoming event, NBC News reported earlier this month that the tickets are technically free and the UFC is footing the bill for the event. That said, sponsorship packages that include ringside seats have been selling for $1 million or more, and no one seems to know where the sponsorship money is going.

While those questions linger, the list of presidential distractions continues to grow. The construction of the UFC venue, which will come down after Trump’s birthday, coincides with the Republican’s focus on his ballroom vanity project, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the installation of a White House helipad and the construction of a massive “triumphal arch” near Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump has also been fixated on a desire to turn the Eisenhower Executive Office Building into a giant white blob, his stated interest in renovating the White House Treaty Room, his specific marble and paint preferences for the Kennedy Center, his plans for a “statue garden,” his sudden interest in fountains around the nation’s capital and a dozen or so additional renovation projects he’s prioritized in and around the White House complex.

This probably isn’t what many Trump voters had in mind when he supported his 2024 candidacy, but it’s what they’re getting anyway.

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