Before the much-hyped and controversial UFC Freedom 250 event got underway on the South Lawn of the White House, it appeared that at least one Trump had been a little careless with their latest alleged grift.
Former UFC star Daniel Cormier, who was working as a commentator at the event, posted and later deleted screenshots that purported to be from Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, asking him point-blank whether he had any inside information about the evening’s fights and whether they were rigged.
Cormier’s quickly deleted the post, but it was screenshotted and shared on X. In the since-deleted post on his account, it wrote read that he would not “stay silent” or “tolerate this type of insider behavior and shame on anyone trying to ruin this beautiful event.”
Cormier immediately posted on X that the post was fake and that he’d been hacked. “Are people really this dumb?” he asked.
“They’re not real, I can’t believe you guys believed that,” Cormier said after the event in a video shared by political correspondent Nicholas Ballasy. “I got hacked or something, who believes stuff like this?”
Eric Trump categorically denied sending the DMs as well.
“That is absolutely not me. I didn’t even know who the guy was,” he told the Wall St. Journal. “This is some kind of AI spoof. This is crazy.”
“This is completely fake! I have never reached out to Daniel. In fact, this is scary,” he added on X.
One MMA journalist who was at the event confirmed the post from Cormier and shared some insight into what might have happened.
“Since I’ve gotten a few DMs about this — yes, the DC tweet was 100% real, I saw it myself. Others saw it. People screen captured it,” wrote MMA reporter Adam Martin. “DC tweeted and deleted it quickly, but people screen grabbed it fast, too. Wonder why DC deleted it. Someone got into his ear quickly, I guess.”
“I will say that the DMs from Trump were a bit weird,” he continued in a quote of the original post. “I do wonder if he got hacked and some hacker sent the DMs to DC. But DC’s post 100% was legit. He pulled the classic Jon Jones “tweet and delete” move. Hopefully, he comments on this sometime tonight. DC didn’t do anything wrong BTW.”
After another tweet briefly appeared on Cormier’s account promoting a crypto scam, some wondered how he was able to access his account so quickly, get hacked again, and then immediately regain access to delete another post.
As it stands, Cormier and Trump will be taken at their word that the initial post and screenshots were part of a hack. But given the Trump family’s (ongoing) history of shady business practices and their close proximity to prediction markets, it’s not surprising that few people were shocked at the notion of a Trump family member attempting to solicit inside information for financial gain.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.