President Donald Trump marked his 80th birthday last Sunday with an unprecedented Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event on White House grounds, but by Friday onlookers were stunned when photos emerged showing the damage left behind on the Ellipse, often referred to as President's Park South.
“The UFC event has destroyed the grass on the Ellipse in front of the White House,” bluntly noted John Jackson, a podcaster, writer and U.S. veteran of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in a social media post Friday evening.
Captured by Reuters' Aaron Schwartz on Friday, an aerial photograph shows the once-green Ellipse – a 52-acre park just south of the White House South Lawn – with slivers and patches of green grass amid a sea of brown. The White House’s South Lawn also suffered damage, with a White House spokesperson telling USA Today that $1 million will be spent restoring its grass.
“In the 250th year anniversary of USA the White House and [its] surroundings look so terrible,” wrote José Andrés, founder of World Central Kitchen, the disaster-relief food nonprofit organization, in a social media post on X to his more than 1 million followers. “Is so sad to see.”
And Luis Moreno the former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, quipped that the damage to the Ellipse perfectly encapsulated the Trump administration.
“Perfect metaphor for what he’s turned our country into,” he wrote Friday in a social media post on X.
In the 250th year anniversary of USA the @WhiteHouse and surroundings looks so terrible…is so sad to see… https://t.co/qdpsGX7ANN
— Chef José Andrés 🕊️🥘🍳 (@chefjoseandres) June 20, 2026