Pod Save America host Jon Favreau says he was briefly invited to President Donald Trump’s UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House—until UFC organizer TKO Events realized the invitation had gone to the wrong Jon Favreau.
For a few days in March, Jon Favreau thought he’d accidentally scored a rare kind of access: an invitation to President Donald Trump’s UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House. Then he noticed the catch—he wasn’t the Jon Favreau the organizer meant.
Favreau, the host of Pod Save America and a frequent critic of Trump, said he learned he was among “the select few invited” after opening an email on March 25. He read the message aloud in a clip posted to X.
“It’s from TKO Events,” Favreau said, quoting the email’s subject line: UFC Freedom 250. The invitation, dated for Sunday, June 14, described the night as “a special evening celebrating our country.”
The timing, Favreau said, made the surprise feel almost unreal. He has spent years criticizing Trump, and he co-founded his Crooked Media company in response to Trump’s first election victory. In Favreau’s telling, it took only a moment to understand what might have happened.
“I was obviously taken aback,” he said, before adding that he quickly suspected TKO Group Holdings—the parent company of the UFC—was trying to reach the other Jon Favreau, the actor and “Iron Man” director.
Still, he didn’t let the confusion stop him. Favreau said he RSVP’d anyway, and received a follow-up on April 2 confirming a seat.
“Your ticket to UFC Freedom 250 in Washington, DC, on June 14 is confirmed,” he said the email read. Favreau described making plans and even buying a ticket to D.C.
Then the organizer followed up again after Favreau submitted his legal name for the ticket. According to Favreau, the difference came down to a middle name.
“I gave my real info, which is Jonathan Edward Favreau,” he said. “And the only thing that’s different between me and the other Jon Favreau is our middle name. He’s K, Jon K. Favreau, and I’m Jon E.”
The cancellation email, Favreau said, offered an apology and blamed a miscommunication tied to guest invitations. He read the message as it appeared in the follow-up: “Our sincerest apologies. but we’ve just discovered there was a miscommunication about our allotted number of guest invitations for UFC Freedom 250 on June 14. Unfortunately, as a result, we are under-allotted and no longer able to accommodate your attendance. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for your understanding. We would love to host you at a future event.”.
Favreau’s reaction was blunt. “Fuck, I was so close. They got me,” he said.
He added that if he’d still been invited, he would have tried to keep his White House visit quiet—something he framed as a matter of getting through it safely. “I would’ve kept my White House visit a secret until I was ‘safely out of there.’”
TKO did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Favreau’s claims.
Jon Favreau Pod Save America Trump UFC Freedom 250 TKO Events White House South Lawn Crooked Media UFC June 14 Washington DC