Hypocrisy. “Wow, you’ll complain about this but not about that, how hypocritical. Imagine if the roles were reversed.” It’s a common complaint among Americans on the right-hand side of the political spectrum, almost ad nauseum, but it’s common for a reason. The political Left has, for many long years, evinced the fact that its ardent adherents will fly into a fit of hysterics and histrionics at the slightest provocation, deriding even the simplest of moves or gestures by the political Right, but will outright refuse to condemn its own on similar terms. One recent example is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) display that President Donald Trump hosted outside the White House Sunday night.

Now, fighting in the White House is far from unprecedented. When President Andrew Jackson, a notorious duelist with a hot temper, was inaugurated in 1829, celebrations in the White House devolved quickly into a booze-fueled brawl, with supporters, celebrants, and well-wishers nearly accidentally killing the newly-minted president, crushing him against a wall. In order to quickly evacuate the presidential residence, White House staff set up tubs of liquor-infused punch on the lawn. The episode earned Jackson the nickname “King Mob.”

Less than a century later, President Theodore Roosevelt, of “Rough Rider” fame, would convert part of the basement of the White House into a combination gymnasium-dojo-boxing ring, and would frequently wrestle, spar, and box against friends, cabinet secretaries, military officials and aides, and even foreign diplomats and dignitaries. He would also host boxing matches in the basement, featuring both White House officials and professional boxers. In one notable episode, Roosevelt demonstrated a judo throw during a state luncheon, flipping a Swedish government official onto his back and hurling him onto the floor. During one fight, Roosevelt suffered a particularly brutal blow to his eye, which detached his retina and eventually left him blind in his left eye.

In the succeeding 100-odd years, much of the rough and tumble has been purged from the White House. Instead, the presidential residence and workplace complex has become a place of political intrigue, closed-door meetings, and agenda-driving, often punctuated by golf. Trump’s resurrection of the noble tradition of competitive sport at the White House has thus been treated by progressives and their allies as some cataclysmic deviation from tradition and has been derided as a waste of money (despite the fact that UFC funded the entire affair), a frivolous or vulgar display of self-gratification, or some kind of ideological or metaphysical assault on some sacred space.

Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, who was roundly defeated by Trump in 2016, posted on social media, “Remember, during today’s literal cage match on the White House grounds: No matter what, it’s not his house. It’s our house,” decrying the UFC fight. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, notoriously engaged in sexual activity with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in and around the Oval Office, so the former first lady might want to sit this one out. During his tenure in the White House, Clinton reportedly had as many as 11 sexual encounters with Lewinsky, in addition to nearly 20 instances of phone sex. Whatever Hillary’s partisan posturing on the subject, her own husband certainly treated the White House as “his house,” and a house of depravity and degeneracy at that.

Bill Kristol, an ex-Republican writer and foreign policy wonk whose hatred for Trump has led him to endorse Democrats and identify as a Democrat, described the White House UFC fight as “an event that captures something about this moment in our history. After all, it’s vulgar, it’s violent, it’s commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky, and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect. In other words, it’s Donald Trump.” Just a few short years ago, however, then-President Joe Biden decorated the White House in garish rainbow colors, draping a “progress” Pride flag from the White House’s southern façade, giving the LGBT banner pride of place over the Star Spangled Banner, which was used to flank the Pride flag. While Biden did not invite a host of well-known athletes from around the world to compete in contests of physical strength and martial prowess, he did invite LGBT activists to his White House, including a man who identified as transgender and flashed his fake, prosthetic breasts on the White House lawn. Kristol, who endorsed Biden in 2020, did not describe this indecency as “vulgar,” nor as “tacky,” nor did he argue that the indecent exposure of artificial mammaries on the White House lawn “dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect.” In fact, there is no record of Kristol making any public comment on the episode.

Economist Jessica Riedl, who was born Brian Riedl and now wears skirts and dresses, commented on a video of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Josh Hokit winning his bout against former UFC Heavyweight Championship contender Derrick Lewis. “A generation or two ago, it was common for presidents to refuse to enter the oval office without a suit coat (except rare moments like a heat wave or illness). They felt those hallowed grounds were too dignified for anything less. I liked that much better than whatever this is,” Riedl said. Riedl, who previously worked at the Heritage Foundation (2001 to 2011) and the Manhattan Institute (2017 to 2025) and for the presidential campaigns of Republicans Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio, publicly identified as transgender last year. “I’ve unmistakably known I was transgender since the age of 4. Medical scans and examinations — performed as a volunteer in medical studies — have since confirmed my predominantly female brain biology, along with other biological characteristics that have countered my outwardly male appearance,” Riedl explained in a February 2025 blog post. “Too many adults still cling to their 10th grade biology teacher’s (purposely) over-simplified summary that XX versus XY chromosomes cleanly determine all subsequent male or female biological and gender development.”

The point of detailing all of this is simple: Leftists will go ballistic over a straight, white male president enjoying a sporting event outside the White House and will demonize Americans on the right-hand side of the political spectrum over such minor or simple things, but will vehemently defend even the most insane gestures, comments, or actions committed by their allies.

Here’s another example, in brief: After George Floyd’s death, leftists took to the streets in protest, quickly devolving into more than 100 consecutive days of rioting, looting, and arson across the nation. Floyd was lionized, almost deified, and the violent rioters were coddled and even praised. During that same period, however, the leftist establishment simultaneously vilified even the most moderate, milquetoast of Republican leaders for questioning the draconian COVID-19 restrictions that leftist agitators and rioters were violating en masse.

Another example: During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump warned that a second Biden term would result in an economic “bloodbath” for American manufacturing, particularly the auto industry. Biden, however, was quick to capitalize on confusion and rising tension, insisting that Trump was threatening political violence. (Just a few months later, by the way, it was Trump who would be shot in the side of the head in an assassination attempt, following years of Biden and other Democrats and leftist influencers demonizing him as Adolf Hitler incarnate and an existential threat to American “democracy,” whatever that is.) The following year, Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia Jay Jones was exposed for sending text messages fantasizing about shooting a Republican rival in the head. When pressed on the issue, Jones did not retreat, but doubled down, saying that the Republican’s children should also be shot, since they are “little fascists.” While some Democrats described Jones’s comments as concerning, not a single Democrat demanded Jones drop out of the race. In fact, he did not even lose a single endorsement.

A quick recap of leftist “logic” here: Sexually manipulating and exploiting interns in the Oval Office or hosting transgender indecent exposure events on the White House lawn are fine, but enjoying a sporting event is not. Rioting in the streets and burning down cities for three months straight is laudable, but asking questions about “the science” is dangerous. Using a colloquial metaphor to discuss economic impacts is a means of fomenting political violence, but actually calling for the death of a political opponent and his children is unproblematic.

The same thing has happened over and over again. Left-wing politicians are permitted — even encouraged, by their fellow progressives — to flood the U.S. with third-world escapees who proceed to rape and murder America’s women and children and destabilize the U.S. jobs and housing markets, but Republican presidents are smeared as Nazis for attempting to reverse the flow and safeguard the American people and their homeland. The Left can chemically and surgically castrate, sterilize, and carve up children in the name of LGBT “affirmation” and “inclusivity,” but conservatives are told that they’re responsible for children’s suicides if they even suggest a bit of caution. Leftists will happily profit from the death-by-abortion of unborn babies and even cover up (facilitate) the rape of underage girls to make a little more blood money, but cast pro-life Americans as evil, woman-hating oppressors and dictatorial theocrats for daring to defend the unborn. The list goes on and on.

In short, the Left does not care what the other side of the political spectrum thinks. The Left is not interested in dialogue or debate, only in browbeating political opponents into terrified, stupefied submission. Bizarrely, that sentiment is not reciprocated. Instead, too many elected officials ostensibly on the political Right hunger for the approval of their rivals. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversaw the widespread partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Biden, was not confirmed in his critical role by a narrow margin: 20 Republican senators sided with Democrats to empower Garland to terrorize pro-lifers, concerned parents, Catholics, and other conservatives, all while allowing Antifa-type groups to target pro-life pregnancy resource centers and Christian churches for everything from vandalism and death threats to property destruction and firebombing.

The controversy over the White House UFC fight is ridiculous, but nowhere near as ridiculous as taking seriously or earnestly trying to engage with anything that the Left says on the subject — or any subject, for that matter. The Left has demonstrated, over the course of the past several years in particular, that its adherents are going to vocally and aggressively promote and pursue their own political agenda and demonize and attempt to steamroll anyone who stands in their way. It’s time that the Right gets the memo. Stop caring what the fringe Left says. They will whine and complain about “dignity” and what’s “appropriate” because a president is enjoying a sporting event, while celebrating Sodom and Gomorrah on the White House lawn. They will cry their eyes out about “human decency” because the president is sending a foreign murderer or child-rapist back to his home country, while butchering unborn babies in the womb and calling it empowerment or health care. They aren’t operating in good faith; they are manipulative, coercive, delusional partisans who will celebrate the assassination of their political opponents.

No doubt another leftist hissy fit is just around the corner, with the 250th Independence Day now just weeks away. Just remember, when they complain about how American patriotism isn’t inclusive — or how American excellence shouldn’t be celebrated because some Americans owned slaves 200 years ago — or how the American family flying the American flag and grilling American beef patties is an oppressive, fascist threat to “democracy” — or whatever complaint they’re going to come up with — just remember that these are people who will lionize drug-addicted career criminals and sexual predators but have a meltdown over a summer boxing match. Smile, be polite, but just remember: these are not serious people.