If all goes according to plan, Donald Trump will host a UFC fight on the White House lawn, where crews are putting the finishing touches on a 92-foot-tall, octagon-shaped stage surrounded by ads for Polymarket, Bud Light and Monster Energy.But a last-minute legal battle is threatening to derail Sunday’s event, which coincides with the president’s 80th birthday.A federal judge is weighing whether to issue a temporary restraining order that would stop Sunday’s cage match and block the UFC from using the White House and Lincoln Memorial as a backdrop for a for-profit sporting event, the first ever on White House grounds.A lawsuit from the Public Integrity Project on behalf of two activists argues the president’s “deeply corrupt” event will give the UFC “unfettered access” to turn Washington, D.C.’s taxpayer-funded landmarks into billboards.If the court doesn’t intervene, the “volcano of corruption” will “mark an inflection point in American history,” lawyers wrote Wednesday night. “Images it generates will one day appear in the history books — and not in the chapters about times remembered fondly.”Crews are putting the finishing touches on a 92-foot-tall, octagon-shaped stage on the White House lawn for Donald Trump’s 80th birthday UFC fight (AP)Judge Amit Mehta said he won’t hold any hearings in the case before he decides on a restraining order.The Department of Justice argues that the lawsuit is simply too late. UFC has already committed $60 million to the event, according to court filings, and UFC president Dana White said the organization will spend an additional $700,000 to restore the grass on the White House lawn.Extensive planning, permitting, travel plans for thousands of spectators and intense training among the fighters would all be wasted if the event is forced to cancel, according to the Justice Department.“All these hopes could be dashed at the very last moment” on the “whim of two people who believe they have superior taste and want to spoil the event for everyone else,” government lawyers wrote Tuesday.“It would be easy enough to simply avert their gazes for the weekend,” they added. “Instead, they seek to enlist the power of a federal court to impose their idiosyncratic preferences on the rest of the country and ruin an event designed to celebrate the United States of America.”The Public Integrity Project argues that the legal challenge was right on time.The Trump administration “concealed the true nature of the event for months” until the days leading up to the fight, the group wrote.Trump first floated the idea of staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn last year. He issued an executive order in January designating UFC Freedom 250 as a “presidential priority event celebrating America’s 250th birthday.” The fight is considered an “official Freedom 250 celebration associated with the national semiquincentennial celebration,” the White House-backed public-private partnership, according to a top parks official.But the partnership did not play any role in organizing or funding the fight, despite using the Freedom 250 name.“The discovery that UFC Freedom 250 was, in fact, not part of Freedom 250 confirmed that this was a money-making enterprise, and one that can and should be challenged,” according to the Public Integrity Project.A lawsuit from a good government group argues the Trump administration is illegally opening the door for a ‘volcano of corruption’ with the mega-branded, for-profit sporting event (Getty)The event is sponsored by Singaporean cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, and other companies are “clambering over each other to see their brands plastered” all over Washington, D.C., according to the lawsuit.“Plaintiffs acted promptly as soon as their injuries accrued and the full scope of the event’s lawlessness became clear,” lawyers wrote. “And the equities favor enjoining the corrupt spectacle now, before the damage is done for good.”Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to answer questions about the event during a press conference Thursday.Asked whether the Justice Department will abide by a court order that would block the event from happening, he repeated: “I’m not going to talk about the UFC fight.”The Justice Department argues the lawsuit was too late and suggests plaintiffs ‘avert their gazes’ instead (AP)The high-profile, privately funded event is expected to bring in multi-million dollar sponsorships and revenue through a broadcast agreement with Paramount Plus, a streaming platform operated by Trump allies Larry and David Ellison.Trump’s family is also promoting Freedom 250-themed silver and gold medallions featuring the president’s face, marketed as a collaboration between the UFC and the Trump Organization, which is run by the president’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. “Trump Coins” range from $250 to $11,999.99.Brand logos are all over the White House lawn, including a large Monster Energy banner above the stage.“In the face of facts like these, it beggars belief to argue that the UFC’s uses and abuses of national parklands qualify as the President’s ‘official purposes,’” plaintiffs wrote. “Defendants had their opportunity to defend that impossible position in their brief. They understandably chose not to take it.”A series of court filings this week detailed the scope of construction and staging for the event, which also includes a pre-fight press conference at the Lincoln Memorial and a weigh-in at the Ellipse on Saturday, followed by a concert from the Zac Brown Band.Fighters will enter the Lincoln Memorial — “each accompanied by a child” — and be filmed walking through a lower chamber and down the steps to a press conference area, according to a top parks official. There will also be a “Fan Fest” on the Ellipse, with “live shows featuring interviews with UFC athletes, celebrity appearances and exclusive on-stage moments, plus meet-and-greets, live music,” all building up to a fight watch party on Sunday night.Despite Trump floating the idea that the arena could stay on the White House grounds forever, crews will dismantle the arena “immediately” after the fight, according to testimony from a White House official.And according to the Justice Department, nothing in the lawsuit “entitles” plaintiffs to stopping any of that.