Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin criticized President Trump on June 22, 2026, after images circulated showing extensive damage to the White House Ellipse following the UFC “Freedom 250” event held on the South Lawn. “The Orange Felon breaks everything he touches,” Martin wrote on X. He was responding to a post from MeidasTouch sharing a Reuters aerial photograph showing crews dismantling the UFC venue, with a caption stating that “the grass on the Ellipse has been completely destroyed following the UFC viewing party.”
What the Photos Actually Show
The damage to the Ellipse, a 52-acre public park just south of the White House, has been documented by multiple outlets in the days following the event. An aerial photo taken by a Reuters photographer showed the park “nearly entirely covered in yellow grass and dirt, with only a few patches of lush vegetation remaining.” Before-and-after images showed the Ellipse covered in green grass prior to the event, with large sections reduced to brown patches and exposed soil in the days afterward. The South Lawn itself, where the UFC octagon and main seating were installed, also showed visible wear from the temporary arena’s construction.
A Fact-Check on “Completely Destroyed”
The specific claim that the grass was “completely destroyed,” as stated in the MeidasTouch post, has been disputed as an overstatement even by outlets that documented the damage. A fact-check published by MEAWW concluded that while “the turf sustained significant damage and required repairs,” it “was not permanently ruined,” noting that White House grounds crews and event organizers had anticipated the need for restoration and that repair work was already underway by the time the photos circulated.
Scale of the Event
The production included a 4,000-seat arena with broadcast capabilities on the South Lawn, along with a fan festival on the Ellipse that organizers estimated could draw more than 100,000 guests. Joshua Fisher, the White House’s management and administration director, said in a sworn court declaration that the event was “a highly complex, multi-faceted Event that has been carefully planned by a multitude of public and private entities over a significant period.” Crews began an extensive cleanup process immediately after the event concluded, an effort CNN reported was expected to take more than a week to fully break down the production infrastructure.
The Restoration Plan
The White House announced that the National Park Service and ScottsMiracle-Gro would jointly restore the South Lawn, with the lawn-care company committing $1 million toward laying a “proprietary grass blend” intended to make the lawn “stronger than ever before.” UFC CEO Dana White separately said the promotion expected to spend roughly $700,000 replacing the grass damaged by the event. Notably, the White House’s restoration announcement made no mention of the Ellipse specifically, and a National Park Service court filing stated only that it anticipated all equipment would be removed “from the Ellipse and its surrounding area by June 23, 2026,” without addressing a timeline for restoring the grass itself.
Turfgrass experts have said the kind of damage seen on the South Lawn is a normal and expected outcome of staging large events on natural grass. “It’s no more expensive than any other concert in any other stadium,” Trey Rogers, a professor of turfgrass management at Michigan State University, told Newsweek, explaining that organizers typically plan for full turf replacement after events of this scale rather than attempting to preserve the existing grass during setup.
Some reporting has suggested the restoration timeline could stretch well beyond the summer. According to a Newsweek report on the restoration plan, crews intended to lay new sod in July, overseed with a custom grass blend in the fall, and complete a final round of work in spring 2027 — a timeline of nearly a year to fully restore ground affected by a single weekend event.
Other Criticism
The images drew sharp reaction beyond Martin’s post. Luis Moreno, a former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, wrote that the damage to the Ellipse was a “perfect metaphor for what he’s turned our country into.” Chef José Andrés wrote, “In the 250th year anniversary of USA the @WhiteHouse and surroundings looks so terrible…is so sad to see.” The lawn damage was frequently cited alongside two other ongoing controversies on the National Mall: the algae and peeling-coating problems at the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and the demolition of the White House East Wing to make way for a privately funded ballroom.
Background on Martin’s Criticism of Trump
Martin, who became DNC chair in February 2025, has frequently used the phrase “Orange Felon” to refer to Trump in public statements and social media posts, a reference to Trump’s 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts in a New York criminal case related to falsifying business records. Martin has used the term as part of a broader pattern of sharply worded criticism of the administration since taking over the committee.
Martin’s post on the UFC event followed a string of similar Democratic criticism aimed at the condition of National Mall landmarks during the same period, including the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where blue coating began peeling from the basin floor days after a renovation that cost nearly $15 million, and the demolition of the White House East Wing, which has faced its own legal challenges over compliance with historic preservation requirements.
What Comes Next
As of publication, neither the White House nor the National Park Service had announced a specific plan or funding source to restore the Ellipse, even as work to repair the South Lawn moved forward under the ScottsMiracle-Gro and UFC-funded restoration plans. The Ellipse, sometimes referred to as President’s Park South, remains under National Park Service jurisdiction and is regularly used for public gatherings and events separate from White House programming.
Neither the White House nor the DNC had issued further statements responding directly to one another regarding Martin’s post as of publication.