Sheryl Crow excoriated Donald Trump‘s White House birthday bash, which included a UFC fight, in a post to her Instagram story on Monday. “What happened last night on the lawn of the White House was disgraceful and void of decency,” she wrote. “Powerful, rich people filled the lawn to watch a violent sport that ended with a vile and racist comment. All while the average American cannot afford healthcare, gas, and cost of living.”
The artist wrote that keeping silent on this kind of behavior is akin to turning a blind eye to immoral behavior. “Do not be fooled,” she wrote. “This administration is corrupt and does not give a damn about the American people. It only cares about making money hand over fist at the expense and in spite of our democracy.”
“If we continue to support this kind of distraction from reality, we are no better than them,” she continued. “Let’s be better, America.”
The mixed martial arts fight took place on Sunday, Trump’s 80th birthday, and was billed as UFC Freedom 250, ostensibly part of the president’s celebrations of the United States’ 250th birthday. The main event was a match between Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria, though several matches of varying weight classes led up to that one. The tone of the event, though, felt bigoted. Josh Hokit, a heavyweight, used his post-interview time to say, “Michelle Obama is a man.” Host Joe Rogan simply smiled when he said it, as video shows.
Rolling Stone reported on the spectacle and its effect on Washington, D.C., calling it Trump’s all-American dream. “[UFC CEO and president Dana White and the UFC] use the beautiful catharsis and humility of organized violence to show you a world where dreams do come true,” reporter Jack Crosbie wrote. “To get there, all you have to do is sign up for Paramount+. All you have to do is invest in crypto, drive a Dodge truck, drink a Bud Light, vote for Donald Trump. The people who believe this, who drive for hours to watch fights on a giant TV in a sweltering public park, aren’t stupid. As a whole, they’re not all tacky or crude. They’re just American, living in a country that promises so much and delivers so little.”
Crow has long been outspoken in her disdain for Trump and his cronies. Her 2025 song “The New Normal” describes America as a dystopia, and she got rid of her Tesla after Elon Musk was appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency. In 2017, she told Rolling Stone she’d written the song, “Heartbeat Away,” as a reaction to the way Trump was campaigning. “I wrote that song before Trump got the nomination – it already felt apocalyptic that people were entertaining the idea of making a man like that the most powerful person in the world,” she said. “I had to go into deep meditation and find a way to have compassion for the people of this country that are hurting and believe he cares about them.”