In mid-June 2026, social media users circulated screenshots appearing to show that Eric Trump, son of U.S. President Donald Trump, sent direct messages to UFC commentator Daniel Cormier asking for inside information about the UFC Freedom 250 event, a mixed martial arts event that took place on the White House lawn in celebration of America's 250th birthday.
"Are any of the fights rigged?" said one of the messages purportedly from the younger Trump.
Many of the posts online sharing the screenshots claimed that they came from a since-deleted X post allegedly shared by Cormier, whose post said, "I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for bringing this to light, however I refuse to stay silent."
"The UFC is a sport that I'm deeply passionate about I will not tolerate this type of insider behavior. Shame on anyone trying to ruin this beautiful event," Cormier's alleged post continued.
Here's the full exchange circulating online:
TRUMP: Hey Daniel, I'm gonna be attending UFC 250 tomorrow, saw you were casting, hope to see you there!
CORMIER: Yo eric didn't expect a dm from you, excited to meet you and the family much love brother!!
TRUMP: Anything you can tell me about the fighters tomorrow? Who you got winning?
CORMIER: Haha i like to stay unbaised but I love to watch nickal fight
TRUMP: You placing any bets?
CORMIER: Nah i'm actually not allowed to bet on any cards or anything
TRUMP: Are any of the fighters injured that you know of?
CORMIER: I'm not quite sure why youre asking me this but i think theyre all in good shape..
TRUMP: I'll just cut to the chase. Are any of the fights tomorrow rigged? I've been eyeing the Lopes fight and I think an upset wouldn't be too unrealistic. $$
CORMIER: No none of our fights rigged and honestly I am appalled that you would even ask me something like that.
Evidence suggests that Cormier likely shared these screenshots in a since-deleted X post from June 14. However, both he and Trump have denied the authenticity of the screenshots. There is not enough information to rate this claim.
While archival sites like Wayback Machine failed to capture the post before it was deleted, numerous screenshots and screen recordings from X users suggest that Cormier's X account published and then deleted the aforementioned post. One community note appeared to share the original URL of the deleted post, adding to the evidence that the post itself was real.
Cormier said in a clip (archived) posted by journalist Nicholas Ballasy that the images were not real.
"I got hacked or something," Cormier said. In another post, Cormier said, "Are people really this dumb?"
Trump said in X posts that the screenshots were "fake," "scary" and "AI-generated." A Trump Organization spokesperson, Kimberly Benza, released a statement on X echoing that.
A since-deleted post from Trump — which is still visible as of this writing via reputable news outlets who embedded the original post, including The Athletic — also said Cormier "has since deleted his post, which confirms it was clearly fabricated," again indicating that Cormier's account likely did, in fact, post the screenshots.
The screenshots circulating online show no indication of AI generation. The account handle and profile picture for Trump in the screenshots matches his actual profile picture and handle, and users shared images showing different numbers of views and interactions for Cormier's post. Google Gemini detected no SynthID, an invisible watermark marking Google's AI-generated content. Hive Generation and ZeroGPT, two tools that detect AI-generated content, determined that the screenshots were not likely generated by AI. (Snopes cautions against solely using AI-detection tools to come to conclusions, given that the tools are fallible.)
However, it is easy to fake screenshots such as these with current technology. Without metadata and additional information, it is impossible to know whether the screenshots are authentic.
For further reading, we have previously covered allegations of insider trading in the Trump administration, including a claim that the president's youngest son, Barron Trump, bought $30 million in oil days before the Iran war began.