G7 Summit Rescheduled After Trump Plans UFC Birthday Event on White House Lawn

PARIS — France will move this year’s G7 meeting by one day to avoid a clash with a mixed martial arts event planned for the White House on June 14, officials said.

The summit in Evian was set for June 14 to June 16. It will now run from June 15 to June 17.

The White House event is billed as a major UFC fight on June 14, which is also President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. Mr. Trump himself spoke about the plan at a public event, saying, “On June 14 next year, we’re gonna have a big UFC fight at the White House.”

UFC chief Dana White said organizers have worked through the details and described the scale they expect for the show. “We literally just got done going through all the logistics of how to set it up there, how many people we can have,” he said, and later added, “It’s looking like we’ll have 5,000 people live on the White House lawn. It will be on the south lawn and then across the street is the park, it’s called the Ellipse, I think, and we can have 85,000 people there.”

French officials said the date change was made after talks with other G7 members. The French presidency said the new schedule is “the result of our consultations with G7 partners.” The office did not directly say the UFC event caused the change.

Reporters who follow summit planning said the possibility of moving dates was first raised in local coverage of Evian. International outlets then reported that French organizers and foreign delegations agreed the one day shift would ease travel and security planning during a packed week in Washington.

The swap shows how public events and diplomacy can bump into one another. Leaders need secure and quiet windows for talks and for travel. A large public sports event in the U S capital adds complexity for police and for teams moving between meetings. That is the plain practical reality behind the decision.

Organizers say the G7 will keep the same agenda on economics and world security and that the meeting’s work will not be cut short. Delegations now face one less day of travel overlap and one more day to coordinate with host authorities in France and the United States.

Some diplomats and commentators found the calendar clash striking. Diplomacy often aims to be steady and predictable. Entertainment promotions aim for the biggest possible audience. When both aim for the same date the result is a forced compromise. In this case, the summit moved and the fight kept its slot.

The U S Embassy in Paris did not immediately provide details about how the event and summit will be coordinated. For now, officials say the goal is to limit disruption while keeping both events on track. Expect more details as the dates grow closer and as Washington and Paris finalize logistics.

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