UFC fight can't hide MAGA male weakness

[marmar]

UFC fight can’t hide MAGA male weakness
Calling Michelle Obama a “man” won't make up for losing the Iran war

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published June 17, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Above all things, the Ulitmate Fighting Championship spectacle on the White House lawn on Sunday was Donald Trump’s birthday present to himself. The self-proclaimed “Greatest President in History” once again reminded the public that the only record he’ll set is in White House corruption, using the fight both to line his own pockets and enrich his billionaire benefactors. But if the 80-year-old was hoping that proximity to half-naked men punching each other would make him look more robust and virile, the opposite happened. Despite the dramatic music and his ever-thickening foundation application, Trump looked frail and his ever-present hand bruise was hard to ignore, despite the efforts to cover it with makeup.

The painful event was an almost too-perfect symbol of the larger problem infecting Trump’s White House: it’s run by men obsessed with looking tough, but who are, in actuality, weak and incompetent. The more they fail, the more they grasp for these theatrical but ineffectual displays of masculine preening, hoping that the public mistakes loud and violent displays for strength. This may fool the hardcore MAGA base into perpetuity, but increasingly, it’s becoming evident to everyone else that all the chest-pounding theatrics are just a cover to conceal the weakness that defines MAGA manhood.

....(snip)....

The UFC fight exemplified MAGA’s false understanding of what strength actually looks like. Yes, the guys in the cage can punch really hard and knock each other out. But, as I noted in my video response to watching the fight, the event was a pitch-perfect illustration of how fragile traditional, right-wing masculinity really is. These men live in what appears to be daily terror that the slightest misstep — getting caught cooing over a kitten or shaking their hips to a Beyoncé tune — will emasculate them. The over-the-top violence is a grasping effort to stave off this fear. Hyperbolic dominance displays function as a baby’s blanket, a totem to cling to in order to self-soothe over the ever-present threat that someone, somewhere, might call them “gay.”

....(snip)....

Mistaking this sexist weakness for toughness is a common problem in MAGA. So is confusing violence with strength. That’s how Trump lost the war with Iran. He and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth loudly and repeatedly insisted that defeating Iran would be easy because the U.S. has bigger weapons. Never mind that this theory of war failed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. The MAGA concept of manhood is so tied up in these childish views about violence and domination that they are incapable of learning anything. Learning is itself viewed with suspicion, as an emasculating enterprise best avoided for more punching and bragging. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/17/ufc-fight-cant-hide-maga-male-weakness/

[sop]

1. Trump thows up on himself every day.

[dalton99a]

2. The apex of American civilization:

Michael Chandler stretches in the White House before his lightweight bout with Mauricio Ruffy, not pictured, during UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

[dlk]

12. Or the nadir...

n/t

[malaise]

3. Good read

Rec

[OC375]

4. We are finally Rome.

[mdbl]

10. Rome with no class

Straight out of the movie Idiocracy.

[OC375]

18. Caesarean perhaps?

The Rubicon was crossed years ago. How will Caesar be received this time? What will result? Pompey is already gathering an IPO army, he knows the story, and foreign endeavors haven’t paid off for Julius yet, so I guess we’ll see?

[LiberalArkie]

11. We are not at Idiocracy era, way early

[mdbl]

23. I wish I could agree with you

but the dumb magats in this country along with the idiot display at the white house the last few days are scenes right out of the movie. Add to this impending AI stupidity and you'll have a bunch of "Not Sure's" running around by the end of next year.

[LiberalArkie]

24. If I was in my 20's I would have my name changed to Not Sure

Last edited Wed Jun 17, 2026, 03:42 PM - Edit history (1)

[leftstreet]

5. DURec

[usonian]

6. A really strong person lifts others up.

A weak/empty person projects their weaknesses, fears and failures onto others and tries to cut them down.

And always picks the most vulnerable,

[Walleye]

7. The Republican party hates women, that's all there is to it

I think she’s right though they are afraid of us. They don’t understand how we can function every day without being violent.

[CrispyQ]

8. An excellent commentary!

There are a few men I'd like to send this to, but this:

The MAGA concept of manhood is so tied up in these childish views about violence and domination that they are incapable of learning anything. Learning is itself viewed with suspicion, as an emasculating enterprise best avoided for more punching and bragging.

[bsiebs]

9. Senate candidate Talarico defined it pretty well recently...

https://youtube.com/shorts/r2J7mkOyK00?si=sJYG6U9C6U9KTABE

[popsdenver]

13. weak and incompetent.....Hell

More like Weak and IMPOTENT.....Trump and his CABAL males, are all Suffering from TWPC.....(Teenie Weenie Peenie Complex)



In all fairness, I think they should have female matches.....may I suggest AOC and Melania or Ivanka for the top event????????

[relogic]

14. The more

the pundits on the right scream for and justify toxic masculinity in our culture the weaker and foolish they look. They have been tying this mindset to christian doctrine for decades, What better picture of tough, manly perserverence than the model of “the man of sorrows” on a cross.

They have their mascot, but not one magat wants the nail piercing.

[markpkessinger]

15. I've been giving a good deal of thought to this . . .

. . . and it seems to me that so much of what the MAGAverse/Manosphere regard as traditionally "masculine" virtues amount to what earlier generations would have readily recognized as nothing more than foolish, adolescent bluster.

I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in a tiny borough in rural Pennsylvania (pop. 750, give or take), where my family had lived for nearly 200 years. My father was a WWII US Navy veteran. His two brothers served in the same conflict in the Army. They embodied a masculinity that was fairly widely embraced in their generation. That masculinity eschewed open displays of aggression and abhorred bullies and guys who would run their mouths about how tough they were. Above all, it valued quiet confidence, competence, and self-mastery/self control!

These MAGA morons are a LONG way from that ideal!

[Martin68]

16. Excellent analysis.

[MoseShrute]

17. The real question, though

Did those fighters have tears in their eyes?

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. Nor the constant hypocrisy about 'traditional male values'.

There is a reason that cities that hold rethug conventions have a marked increase in prostitution activity...

The biggest in 'same-sex' prostitution...

They are hypocrites of the highest order, and they are deliberately oblivious to it. The same guy who would have drunken BJs during conventions from underage males is the one who will cast his own child out of the house for being 'gay' enough to want to draw anime art for their career.

Pathetic. Those types deserve to meet Guillie! Call me bloodthirsty if you want to.

[liberalla]

20. Trump's White House:

Trump’s White House:

"Run by men obsessed with looking tough, but who are, in actuality, weak and incompetent.

The more they fail, the more they grasp for these theatrical but ineffectual displays of masculine preening, hoping that the public mistakes loud and violent displays for strength.

This may fool the hardcore MAGA base into perpetuity, but increasingly, it’s becoming evident to everyone else that all the chest-pounding theatrics are just a cover to conceal the weakness that defines MAGA manhood."


So FREAKIN true! We've all known this but the writer expressed it just so perfectly!
Thank you Amanda Marcotte!

[relayerbob]

21. "can't hide" - haha - I read that as "emphatically demonstrates"

[ShazzieB]

22. He didn't just look frail. He fell asleep!