Joe Rogan Told You to Shut Up. He Picked the Wrong Fight.

They sold seats in the People’s House to billionaires, put a cage on our lawn, and now a man who helped elect Trump wants you quiet. Here is why you don’t owe him your silence.

An Open Letter to Joe Rogan

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Dear Joe,

You went on your podcast this week and told millions of Americans to shut the f up about the UFC fights staged on the South Lawn of the White House. You called the concern partisan noise. You told everyone to settle down and get along.

You skipped past the one thing this moment turns on, and as a lawyer who has spent a career defending those who are unable to defend themselves along with fighting for the idea that no one stands above the law, I am going to lay it out for you plainly.

The Objection Was Never About the Sport

Joe, you keep on insisting critics are mad at people for showing up. You say watching a cage match does not mean a person endorses Trump’s policies. But here’s the thing, you are swinging at a target nobody serious put up. The real objection cuts far deeper than fandom, and you bury it under a punchline.

This Was Never the People’s Event

Start with who actually got in. The fights on the South Lawn were invitation only. No regular American got to buy a seat. The grounds Americans pay for, the grounds we own, were handed to a guest list. Trump pocketed more than a thousand tickets to hand out. Dana White grabbed hundreds more. The ultra rich reportedly bought their way close to the cage through sponsorship packages running into seven figures, some near a million and a half dollars. We got a screen on a public park down the street. They turned our house into a private club for the powerful and slapped the word freedom on it.

The White House Belongs to Us

The South Lawn is not Donald Trump’s backyard. The White House is the People’s House. We own a piece of every brick and every blade of grass on that lawn. The person behind the Resolute Desk is a guest in our home for a short time, a caretaker handed the keys, a servant sworn to protect what belongs to all of us. Caesar built coliseums and fed the crowd blood and bread to remind them who held power. Our founders rejected that entire idea and handed us a republic with no emperor at the top.

The event cost around $60 million dollars and an additional $17-27 million in tax dollars which I wrote about here. It landed squarely on Trump’s eightieth birthday. He bragged about keeping the cage on the lawn for good, comparing his structure to the Eiffel Tower. An anti corruption group went to court to stop the spectacle, and the fight went forward anyway. Staging gladiators on our lawn so a president looms over the cage and soaks up the chants announces one message. This is my house now.

This Sport Wears Its Cruelty Out Loud

I enjoy sports and even a good fight. But take a close look at what this sport puts on display week after week. Fighters grab microphones and bash gay Americans. They mock immigrants. They spew misogyny and wear it like a badge. The cruelty is the brand. On the night the cage sat on the People’s lawn, a fighter named Josh Hokit ripped the mic from you and called a former First Lady a man to a roaring crowd.

You stood right there, grinned, and rolled to the next name. That is the culture you defended. That is what you asked America to swallow on the most sacred ground we have.

Now Let’s Talk About You And Dana White

Let’s be honest about the two of you. Whether you want to hear it or not, plenty of us are upset with you and with White, and the anger runs deeper than one fight night. You two handed Donald Trump a megaphone when he needed one most. You pumped false claims, conspiracy theories, and flat out misinformation into the ears of millions and dressed it up as honest curiosity. You helped put this man back in power. You helped steer this country onto a dark and dangerous road. Telling us to shut up now, after all of that, takes a special kind of nerve.

Our Move

You want us to be quiet. You want us to mistake our patriotism for partisanship and swallow your voice. Well, we’re going to do the opposite. The White House is ours, our kids’ and our grandkids’. Defending it from anyone who treats it like a throne room is the most American move there is.

We’ll continue to speak up. We’ll continue to share this message. And we’ll continue to remind every neighbor we have that we answer to no king.

Then we are going vote in the midterms like our house depends on it, because our house does.

Mitch Jackson, Esq.

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