Donald Trump’s son Eric responds to ‘leaked messages’ about ‘rigging’ White House UFC event

While the World Cup takes place in his country, Donald Trump was occupied with a different sport last night (14 June).

As part of the celebrations to mark 250 years of American independence, the White House hosted UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn.

With seven bouts making up the show, it culminated in Justin Gaethje defeating Ilia Topuria to become the undisputed UFC lightweight champion.

However, claims came out on social media that the US president’s son, Eric Trump has been talking in ‘leaked messaged’ about ‘rigging’ at the White House event as the American took the win.

But he has now hit out on X as he responds to the posts alleged to have been shared by former MMA fighter and UFC commentator Daniel Cormier.

In the alleged messages in a since-deleted post, Trump supposedly asked Cormier if there was anything he could tell him ‘about the fighters’ as he asked who he had as winning or if he was placing bets.

“I’ll just cut to the chase,” he allegedly wrote. “Are any of the fights tomorrow rigged? I’ve been eyeing the Lopes fight and I think an upset wouldn’t be too unrealistic. $$.”

These posts came before the event took place last night.

In the post, Cormier wrote: "I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for bringing this to light, however I refuse to stay silent. Shame on anyone trying to ruin this beautiful event."

However, Trump has shut down the screenshots as ‘completely fake’.

“I have never reached out to Daniel. In fact, this is scary,” he claimed on X.

Hitting out at Cormier’s post, Trump continued: “We are aware of the fake, AI generated screenshots being circulated online. I have never spoken to Daniel. He has since deleted his post, which confirms it was clearly fabricated.”

However, it’s important to note that while the UFC commentator did seem to delete the post, this cannot be fully taken as confirmation that the screenshots were fake.

But it’s certainly got the president’s son riled up as he continued to slam: “This did not happen. They were AI generated. Please be careful with reporting.”

Cormier later posted again on X to ask: “Are people really this dumb?” with Trump responding: “Thanks Daniel.”

The executive vice-president of his dad’s administration, he was among those in Washington DC to watch the event at the White House last night.