Ion Cutelaba probably did not expect to trend on a Sunday afternoon. Yet there he was, splashed across Donald Trump‘s Truth Social feed in a six-minute compilation of octagon highlights, sandwiched between a run of posts that had already given plenty of people pause about what exactly was happening at the Oval office.
The Cutelaba reel arrived as part of a broader posting spree that saw the 80-year-old president share a string of AI-generated images throughout the day. One depicted him trading stocks from behind the Resolute Desk. Another showed off proposed Space Force uniforms that immediately drew comparisons to the wardrobe of a certain Star Wars emperor. Into that mix, without warning or context, came a light heavyweight known more for chaotic finishes than mainstream recognition.
For those unfamiliar, Cutelaba competed at 205 lbs (93 kg) and has built a reputation across his UFC run for the kind of wild, YouTube-ready sequences that make for good highlight packages, if not always title contention. He is not exactly a household name. Nor is he historically, a name associated with Trump. The president has been vocal in the past about his admiration for Khabib Nurmagomedov, repeatedly calling him a favorite, and he made a point of bringing Derrick Lewis into the fold for the UFC’s White House event. Cutelaba has never come up. Which made the sudden six-minute tribute all the more puzzling to anyone tracking the president’s usual roster of MMA favorites.
The clip’s appearance did not occur in a vacuum. Trump’s niece Mary Trump, a psychologist who has spent years publicly questioning her uncle’s fitness for office, seized on the day’s output as further evidence of decline.
“Donald is decompensating in real time, just look at the insanity he’s posted on social media today,” she wrote.
She was not alone. Democratic commentator Harry Sisson posted a rundown of the day’s uploads with his own diagnosis attached.
“This man is unwell. 25th Amendment NOW,” he wrote.
The account Call to Activism framed the feed itself as the argument.
“Trump’s Truth Social right now is pure chaos. What exactly is the 25th Amendment for, if not this?”
Even the account Republicans Against Trump joined in, posting simply:
“Trump is absolutely losing it. 25th Amendment now.”
The uniform post drew its own layer of scrutiny. Trump described the Space Force look as “Inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform,” a nod to the 1997 film. That reference struck some observers as a curious choice given that director Paul Verhoeven has long described his own costuming as “ironic,” built around what he called a “fas cist utopia.” Whether Trump intended the comparison or simply liked the aesthetic went unaddressed.
The posting spree followed a Labor Day weekend at Trump National Bedminster, where MAGA influencer Michael Solakiewicz documented the president’s time on the grounds, including a photo with radio host Michael Savage, who held up a copy of his book Trump’s War. Trump appeared to look away from the camera in that video. Outlets covering the visit also pointed to a noticeably darker tint to his hair, a flipped side part and what looked like bruising on his arm in later photos posted by former aide John McEntee, a detail that echoed similar marks spotted during earlier golf outings in August. Trump has addressed the hair chatter before, telling reporters in the Rose Garden:
“I don’t wear a wig.”
His physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, said following the president’s annual physical at the end of May that he “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function.”
Against that backdrop, for reasons known only to President Trump, the internet needed six minutes of Cutelaba highlights. It also lands months after UFC’s biggest political crossover moment yet: Freedom 250, which happeneed June 14th on the White House South Lawn, a date that also happens to be Trump’s birthday. UFC CEO Dana White has pushed back on any framing of the card as a celebration of the president rather than the country.
“It’s definitely not a political event,” White said during a walkthrough of the UFC Performance Institute for Entertainment Tonight. “You can be far left, far right, or right down the middle. This is the 250th birthday of America. We’re going to tell the story and the history of America. Most of the people of the 4,000 that will be there will be military from every branch. It’s Americans coming together and celebrating the history and the birthday of America.”
What the Cutelaba clip could mean is up for grabs.
