The controversial UFC Freedom 250 was held at the White House on Donald Trump’s birthday.

Larry David is ‘embarrassed to be an American’ after the UFC event at White House

The controversial UFC Freedom 250 was held at the White House on Donald Trump's birthday.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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June 24, 2026 8:58 p.m. ET

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Larry David; Donald Trump. Credit:

Alberto Rodriguez/Variety via Getty; Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty

- Larry David is calling the UFC event at the White House a "travesty."

- The *Curb Your Enthusiasm* star declared that he's "embarrassed to be an American."

- The controversial event included a fighter insulting Michelle Obama.

Larry David is pretty, pretty, pretty embarrassed right now.

The *Curb Your Enthusiasm* creator and star looked not to enthused when asked on Tuesday about his reaction to the controversial UFC event that took place on the White House lawn on Donald Trump's birthday.

"It was a travesty," he told *Variety*. "What else can you say about it? It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed to be an American."

Millions of dollars were spent to stage UFC Freedom 250 at the White House, which Trump and UFC CEO Dana White championed as a celebration of the United States' 250th anniversary. The staging of the affair was already divisive, and then fighter Josh Hokit used his post-match interview to "shout out to Trump for having the balls to put on some s--- like this," and declare, "Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?"

UFC Freedom 250 on the White House lawn on June 14, 2026.

Evan Vucci/Reuters/Bloomberg via Getty

Sheryl Crow was among those to rip the "disgraceful" event and the "vile and racist" comment, while Jimmy Kimmel called UFC Freedom 250 a "mini January 6" that had "all the refinement and prestige as a Hooters at the Vatican."

A longtime critic of the president, David previously skewered Bill Maher for having dinner with Trump in a satirical Adolf Hitler essay, and David's relationship with his *Curb Your Enthusiasm* wife Cheryl Hines has been affected by her husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s political stances and place in the Trump administration.

"[Trump] is such a little baby that he's thrown 250 years of democracy out the window by not accepting the results of an [election]," David said in 2024. "It's so crazy. He's such a sociopath. He's so insane. He just couldn't admit to losing, and we know he lost. He knows he lost. And look how he's fooled everybody. He's convinced all these people that he didn't lose."

David added, "He's such a sick man. He's so sick."

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Coincidentally, David is marking the country's big birthday with his own celebration. Premiering Friday, HBO's *Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness* is a new sketch series that will document the history of the U.S. like only David can.

Producer Barack Obama, who will also appear on the show, previously teased his collaboration with the famously grumpy and opinionated David. "I've sat across the table from some of the world's most difficult leaders and wrestled with some of our most intractable problems," the former president said in a statement. "Nothing has prepared me for working with Larry David."

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