When the president of the most powerful country in the world celebrates his 80th birthday with a fighting octagon in the middle of the White House lawn, it is no longer a birthday party - it is a spectacle of what power looks like when no one is there to say "enough". Donald Trump marks his eightieth on 14 June, packaged as the start of the commemoration of 250 years of American statehood.

The event, called "UFC Freedom 250", is estimated at 60 million dollars for production and lighting in the colours of the flag alone. On the list - around 5,000 VIP guests whose names are kept under strict secrecy: Wall Street bankers, Silicon Valley magnates, Hollywood figures close to Trump, congressmen and families of military veterans. The invitation has been described as "the most sought-after pass on the planet". Modesty, evidently, is not on the menu.

And the menu is a story in itself. For the VIP boxes - Wagyu beef and fine dining; for the host - his favourite gourmet hamburgers, premium hot dogs and chicken fingers. A giant birthday cake, champagne for the guests, and Trump, faithful to his lifelong abstinence from alcohol, will drink Diet Coke. The main sporting attraction is the fight of the Spanish-Georgian fighter Ilia Topuria, defending his UFC world title against the American Justin Gaethje - a detail that makes the party interesting for audiences outside the US too.

There are comic touches even the best screenwriter could not invent. The fighters come out of the Oval Office and descend into the garden, the weigh-in before the fight is on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and the forecast announces a 65 percent chance of rain and mosquitoes drawn to the television floodlights beside the Potomac River. UFC boss Dana White said they would only cancel "if a lightning bolt hits us". You wonder where the money and the attention of the most powerful state go - there it is, into an octagon on the lawn, for a single birthday.