On The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses MAGA media's “forced” reaction to Trump's UFC spectacle
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From the June 15, 2026, edition of MS NOW's The Weeknight
MICHAEL STEELE (CO-HOST): What was your take on last night? And particularly in light of what Luke just said, that it just had this whole -- you just had this whole thing using the military as a prop, the White House as sort of their own personal playground. What did you think? What have you heard in the chatter spaces of the MAGA-verse since -- leading up to and including last night?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): A couple of things. It's true. It definitely showcased a part of the base that's never going to move. And it's not all of what used to be Trump's base, but it's definitely a core part of it. They're in it for -- they're sort of in on whatever the joke is, but they're in on it. They are there to own everybody else and sort of drive what that is reflective of that culture. It's sort of an illustration of a takeover, you know? It couldn't be any more obvious than that with all the bright lights.
There's another piece here is that there were some personalities, like the Tim Pools, who have been, you know, dancing around, distancing themselves a little bit, that, oh, they're all, they seemingly are all back in. But I watch, I listen to these things every day. It felt a little forced. When they got there, sort of talking about how exciting it was, it felt like they were saying it because they thought a part of their audience was there. They had to say it. Because, again, he linked himself with something deeply, culturally significant, which is the UFC, that does really overlap with a large part of the base and the vigor that Trump is trying to present.
I think Luke said something really significant that I want to sort of pull out a little bit more, though, because this did play out there. One of the things when you say using the military as a prop, we should talk a little bit more about that, because there was some really significant part there. It wasn't just that they were present. In those walkouts, which is a really important part of this audience. They love walkouts. Country music stars, they all do these big walkouts. It's a big part of like getting in the mood. Having somebody who's a Medal of Honor recipient walk out with these fighters so that the military troops, as they're walking by, have to salute. People don't know that, that that's part of the protocol. What they see is the military saluting these fighters. And that is the using part of it. That did not need to happen and probably shouldn't have happened, right? Is to create the false impression that these fighters were being saluted. That is dastardly. But see, it played out really well, because it showed the synergy here. We shouldn't ignore that, you know, that the FBI, you know, Kash Patel, have been talking about having UFC fighters train FBI agents, you know, the same week that this was going on. You had the secretary of war out there -- and some of these videos may look a little silly -- doing bench presses and doing warm-ups with actual members of the troops. So, it is playing relatively well, but it does feel a little forced.