This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemitabasu. Today, what the rise of a violent sport reveals about Trump's America.

Less than two weeks after Donald Trump won the 2024 election, he showed up at Madison Square Garden for an ultimate fighting championship event.

And ladies and gentlemen, look who is now making his way to the world famous Octagon flanked by UFC CEO, Dana White,

45, soon to be 47,

President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump has been a fan of the UFC for years,

and his arrival that night showed that the UFC and its fans love him right back.

It's so loud. It is so loud.

It's always loud when he comes here, but now that he's won, now that he's the president again,

oh my God.

Dana White, the CEO of the UFC, led Trump through the tunnel into the arena as if Trump

were a fighter himself.

And Trump brought with him members of his inner circle,

many of whom have been appointed to key roles in his administration,

Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.

The mood walking into MSG was just kind of this street carnival of the MAGA movement.

That's Jack Crosby, a contributing writer for Rolling Stone. He was there that night in November.

You had people in full red, white, and blue outfits, you had seas of red hats everywhere. You had Trump t-shirts, Trump merch,

all over the place, people selling Trump stuff outside. Like, it was very much the expected

coronation of the next president. Jack told us this UFC event, coming on the heels of Trump's

election victory, was the ultimate display of not only Trump's popularity

and power, but also of the undeniable rise of the UFC, and the sport at its center mixed

...