Al Sharpton links Trump UFC plan to slave master fights

al sharpton used a Thursday appearance on MS NOW’s Morning Joe to link Donald Trump’s planned UFC event on the White House lawn to what he called an older racial order. He said Trump and Republicans were trying to bring the country back to an America that people struggled to get out of.

Sharpton tied that criticism to redistricting, Trump’s admiration for Andrew Jackson, and the White House lawn event. He said UFC and similar fights were part of a return to a time when people watched fights for slave masters and were entertained by that.

Morning Joe remarks

Sharpton said, “Trump and others are trying to bring us back to an America that we struggled to get out of.” He added, “So there is a connection of why they’re having these fights on the White House lawn” and said, “UFC and all that, because they’re trying to go back to that when, you know, they watched people have these fights for the slave masters, and they’d be entertained by that.”

Mika Brzezinski responded by linking the conversation to immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. She said, “Look at these raids” and, “It’s playing out on America’s streets.”

Andrew Jackson picture

Sharpton said Trump first elected in 2016 and entering the Oval Office in 2017 included hanging a picture of President Andrew Jackson. He called Jackson a slave-owning president who nominated Judge Roger Taney to the Supreme Court, and said Taney later became the chief justice tied to the Dred Scott decision.

He asked, “Why didn’t anybody ask Trump? Andrew Jackson, I don’t even remember reading about him in elementary school,” and followed with, “Why Jackson?”

Race and resistance

Sharpton said Jackson was the kind of country Trump wanted people to go back to and added, “That’s the kind of country he wants us to go back to, Andrew Jackson, and we must resist that with all we have.”

The remarks put the White House UFC plan inside a broader argument over redistricting, symbolism, and the historical figures Trump has chosen to elevate. Sharpton made the case on live television, and he framed the issue as one of political direction rather than a single event on the lawn.