UFC to host training sessions with FBI: ‘Tremendous opportunity’
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel delivers remarks on an arrest connected to the 2012 U.S. Embassy attack in Benghazi, at the Department of Justice on February 6, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The UFC will host training sessions at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, this weekend, the mixed martial arts promotion and FBI announced on Thursday.
FBI Director Kash Patel has long been a UFC fan and talked about doing this type of training in one of his first calls with staff at the FBI.
“I’m thrilled to announce this historic seminar between the FBI and the UFC at Quantico,” Patel said in a statement. “This is a tremendous opportunity for our FBI agents to learn and train with some of the greatest athletes on earth — helping the world’s premier law enforcement agency be even better prepared to protect the American people.”
The seminars will be on March 14 and 15 and will be led by current and former UFC fighters, including one champion, UFC said.
“I have tremendous respect for the FBI and the work they do every day to protect this country,” UFC CEO Dana White said in a statement. “Our UFC fighters are some of the baddest men and women on the planet and they are heading to Quantico to train the best FBI agents in mixed martial arts. It’s an incredible opportunity for our athletes to experience, and we’re proud to support the FBI in strengthening their defense techniques.”
UFC fighters taking part in this weekend’s training include current interim UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethe, the first UFC BMF champion Jorge Masvidal, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, former UFC strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha, former UFC lightweight title challenger Michael Chandler, top UFC flyweight contender Manel Kape and mixed martial arts legend Renzo Gracie, the UFC said.
“This collaboration is part of an overall initiative by the FBI to provide its agents with exciting, innovative training options and to constantly look for opportunities to revamp and improve their preparation to continue to be the best of the best,” the FBI said in a release.
The FBI did not say what type of training would be conducted.
The Trump administration and UFC relationship is not new. Trump has attended multiple fights in recent years and the White House is hosting a UFC fight on the Ellipse later this year.
The White House-UFC event, which has been named UFC Freedom Fights 250, is June 14, which is also President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday. The event is also meant to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he departs the White House, May 12, 2026 in Washington.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Americans’ financial situation was “not even a little bit” of a motivating factor for him reaching a deal to end the war in Iran, despite a new report that inflation rose for a second consecutive month and hit a three-year high.
Trump made the comment on Tuesday as he took questions from reporters as he left the White House for a high-stakes trip to China.
“Not even a little bit,” the president said when asked to what extent Americans’ financial situations were motivating him to make a deal with Iran, as the war stretches into its 11th week.
“The only thing that matters when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump continued. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers pressed Trump to clarify whether he was considering the financial impact of the war on Americans. He doubled down.
“The most important thing, by far, is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
“What about the pressure on Americans and prices, right now?” ABC’s Travers asked.
“Every American understands,” Trump said.
He added, “They understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If Iran has a nuclear weapon, the whole world would be in trouble because they happen to be crazy.”
When pressed on his 2024 campaign promise to bring down inflation in light of Tuesday’s report showing prices rose 3.8% in April compared to last year, Trump insisted his policies are “working incredibly.”
A recent poll from ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos found about two-thirds of Americans (65%) disapproved of how Trump is handling the economy. About three-quarters of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the cost of living in the U.S. (76%) with just about a quarter approving (23%). Nearly as many disapprove of how he’s handling inflation (72%), up from 65% who disapproved in February.
Several of the poll’s participants spoke to ABC News about the financial strain they’re experiencing because of soaring gas prices.
As of Tuesday, the national average for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $4.50, according to data from AAA, up more than $1.50 since the war began in late February.
Trump, who on Monday floated a gas tax holiday to bring some financial relief to Americans, reiterated on Tuesday his belief that prices will go back down once the conflict comes to an end.
“When it’s over, you’re going to have a massive drop in the price of oil,” Trump told reporters.
Voter in voting booth. (Hill Street Studios/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — While the Democratic National Committee chose not to release its after-action report on the 2024 election, one prominent Democratic group is sharing feedback from a group of influential voters.
To some of them, Democrats can seem condescending, elitist and out-of-touch. And to win them over, candidates don’t need to take a specific policy position, but should communicate directly, authentically and with empathy.
Drawn from in-depth interviews and focus groups with more than 100 voters from battleground House districts and states, the “Baseline Report” released by MD PAC, a political action committee working to reshape Democratic Party, aims to help candidates and campaigns connect with voters who supported Joe Biden in 2020 and either voted for Donald Trump or stayed home four years later.
The organization is affiliated with Majority Democrats, one of several groups working with candidates to remake and redefine the party’s image ahead of the midterms.
“It’s not exactly a state secret that something went very wrong for Democrats in 2024,” Lis Smith, a senior adviser to Majority Democrats, told ABC News. “The responsible thing isn’t to bury our heads in the sand, it’s to figure out how to win their votes so we can move forward.”
Across the entire cohort, voters shared a sense of exhaustion and emotional burnout. They view both Democrats and Republicans skeptically, and they feel “unseen, unheard, and unrepresented by the federal government,” the group notes in its report.
According to the analysis and the group’s briefing on the findings, voters across the cohort felt a sense of economic strain, and a fear that the “floor could drop at any time,” as one of them told the group.
In 2024, Trump and Republicans won over a larger share of voters without college degrees, performing 4 points better than he did in 2020 among voters who are more economically vulnerable, according to ABC News exit polls.
Republicans also won more than half of voters whose total family income in 2023 was between $30,000 and $49,999, and $50,000 to $99,999, according to ABC News exit polls for the House of Representatives in 2024.
Smith recalled a conversation with a Democratic senator after the 2024 election that underscored how the party didn’t connect with voters’ concerns about the economy.
“They told me, ‘I would hear from voters about price of eggs and I thought it was a Fox News talking point,'” she said. “That suggested to me that a lot of members of Congress and their staffs are insulated from what voters are feeling. And this is a way to break through that.”
At a time when Democrats are grappling over the party’s positions on the U.S. relationship with Israel and whether to call for the abolishing or reform of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Majority Democrats’ report doesn’t recommend a specific set of positions for Democrats to adopt.
“Voters were not demanding ideological purity. They expected leaders to be flawed, change their minds, or even contradict themselves. What mattered was why — and whether the shift seemed honest,” the report reads.
While the report doesn’t dig into what went wrong for the party in 2024 and how Biden’s unsuccessful run for a second term impacted the fall results, the voters who participated expressed a desire to see politicians focus on issues that matter to them and show a willingness to disagree with their party.
“When voters were overwhelmingly telling us Joe Biden was too old to run for reelection, the Democratic powers that be responded, ‘Don’t believe your lying eyes,'” Smith said.
She also pointed to Democrats’ defending the Biden administration’s economic record by saying inflation was lower in the U.S. than in other countries.
“Democrats came off too often as defenders of the status quo,” Smith said. “That missed the mark, and going forward what we recommend is that Democrats understand the real, deep frustrations with economic and political systems.”
A sign displays the prices of unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel at a Shell gas station in Upland, Calif., on May 4, 2026. (Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The monthslong war in Iran is inflicting economic pain across the country as many Americans report struggling with higher costs, particularly the record rise in gas prices.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll released last week found that half of Americans expect gas prices to increase more in the next year, and that 4 in 10 Americans say they are not as well off as they were when President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Nearly a quarter said they are falling behind financially.
In callback interviews with several of the poll’s participants, people emphasized they are struggling to pay for basic necessities and that they are unsatisfied with the country’s leadership.
In an interview with ABC News, Jacob Olson, 28, from Beebe, Arkansas, said rising gas and food prices have made life challenging. After he was laid off from his position as a warehouse manager for a solar company that went bankrupt, Olson became a self-employed maker of custom wood projects like storage racks. He said he spends a lot on gas while driving around to his customers.
“One day at a time,” Olson said. “One foot in front of the other. … That’s about the way to sum it up.”
The ABC/Post/Ipsos poll found that in addition to the 50% of Americans who said they expect gas prices to get worse over the next year, another 15% expect gas prices to stay about the same.
Olson agreed that prices for gas and other goods will continue to go up.
“I don’t really do anything, you know, for leisure or luxury anymore,” Olson said. “It’s all kind of just getting the bills paid … I have a 1-year-old, and I just had another baby about a month ago, so I’ve got two little ones, and every day it’s getting harder.”
Brenda Howard, 66, from Lubbock, Texas, said she can’t afford luxuries like trips or meals out either, and since she does not own a car she has to rely on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft for errands and transport to her job as a cleaner.
She said using Uber or Lyft to take a trip to the grocery store costs her around $30.
“This is not the way I thought my retirement was gonna turn out,” Howard said. “I never dreamed that it would be a day-to-day struggle, sometimes hour to hour.”
The poll found some Americans said they were changing their behaviors because of higher gas prices. Over 4 in 10 have cut back on driving (44%) or cut household expenses (42%). Another 34% said they have changed travel or vacation plans.
Those in lower-income households have been hit even harder by the gas price spike. More than half of people with household incomes of under $50,000 a year said they have cut down on driving and household expenses.
Martha Davis, a 66-year-old Texan who works as a caretaker for her disabled son, said she’s struggling to pay for essentials, including gasoline and rent. She has to travel, sometimes as much as 60 miles from where she lives in Tool, Texas, to get to medical appointments.
“I used to get back and forth on like $20, $25, but now it’s almost 70 bucks,” Davis said.
Four in 10 Americans reported that they are less well off than they were at the beginning of Trump’s second presidential term according to the ABC News/Post/Ipsos poll. Some of those who said they are doing worse still support the president.
Andy Breedlove, 51, from West Virginia said he believes both that Trump is doing well in his second term and that gasoline prices are too high.
“But with the price of everything else, it kind of evens out a little,” said Breedlove, who is not working due to a disability. Breedlove suspects gas prices will continue to climb because of the war with Iran.
The Iranian government’s retaliatory blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for the oil market, has led to severe trade disruptions. Around 20% of oil traded on global markets normally passes through the strait.
A 61% majority of Americans said in the ABC/Post/Ipsos poll that the Trump administration’s decision to go to war against Iran was a mistake.
“He hasn’t made a clear statement on why … we’re actually participating at all,” said Olson, the woodworker with a young family. “From what I know, there’s been a lot of just lying and, you know, not being transparent, and … a big lack of professionalism, which I don’t appreciate coming from the president.”
Christopher Mosley, 43, a former Walmart employee from Fort Smith, Arkansas, described Trump as “reckless” on foreign policy.
Trump’s messaging on gas prices has been mixed. When asked in early April whether he thought prices would decrease before the upcoming midterm elections, Trump said they might stay steady or get higher. On May 1, Trump said gas prices would come “tumbling down” once the conflict was resolved. Iran is reviewing the latest proposal from the U.S. government aimed at winding down the war, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said.
The financial strain felt by voters has the potential to significantly impact the midterm elections, a cycle in which Democrats are already positioned to make gains. Trump has framed the prospect of a change in the power dynamics of Congress as an existential threat to his presidency.
Jim Piper, a 36-year-old from Portage, Indiana, said he wishes Trump had more latitude to pursue his policy goals. Since the start of the second Trump administration, Piper said he has been doing worse financially, but he thinks political deadlock between Democrats and Republicans is to blame for rising prices. Since Piper has a disability and relies on a fixed income, inflation is hard on his wallet.
“I got to pay more, even though I’m not making more,” Piper said.
