The historic, rain-delayed UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn delivered exciting action inside the cage, but the night’s biggest bombshell dropped entirely in the digital realm. After hours of internet speculation about a viral, now-deleted tweet containing private text exchanges, Daniel Cormier and Eric Trump have both broken their silence to address the shocking fight-fixing request.

The immediate firestorm ignited when the former UFC double champion’s official X account uploaded—and then deleted—screenshots of a supposed DM exchange with the president’s second son. In the exchange, the account allegedly posing as Eric Trump abruptly asked whether any of the evening’s bouts were “rigged”.

The uploaded screenshots included a caption from Daniel Cormier, as he refused to stay silent over insider behaviour trying to ruin a “beautiful event”. However, both figures have now fiercely downplayed the narrative.

“Are people really this dumb?” the UFC commentator took to X to respond to the social media hysteria before Eric Trump instantly echoed the commentator’s reaction.

“Thanks Daniel,” he wrote.

“People will believe anything,” replied Daniel Cormier as he doubled down on the fact that the two actually had nothing to do with this whole ordeal.

The swift unified response came after a succession of firm denials from the Trump camp as UFC Freedom 250 unfolded in Washington, D.C.

“This is completely fake! I have never reached out to Daniel. In fact, this is scary,” Eric Trump wrote on X.

Still not done refuting the claims, he followed up with another tweet.

“We are aware of the fake, AI-generated screenshots being circulated online,” he wrote. “I have never spoken to Daniel. He has since deleted his post, which confirms it was clearly fabricated.

“This did not happen. Please be careful with reporting.”

The Director of Executive Operations and Communications at The Trump Organization, Kimberly Benza, backed the assertion.

“They were fabricated and do not reflect reality,” Benza wrote on social media. “This is one of the dangers of AI-generated content: false information can spread quickly when people don’t verify what they’re seeing.”

In an official statement to the Wall Street Journal, the 42-year-old Trump reiterated the absurdity of the viral hoax.

“That is absolutely not me,” he said. “I didn’t even know who the guy was… This is some kind of AI spoof. This is crazy.”

Despite the strong pushback, the digital footprint of the initial upload left a very confusing trail for journalists such as Adam Martin and Front Office Sports’s AJ Perez, as both publicly confirmed that they saw the message go live on the former UFC double champion’s actual account before it vanished.

So, the fact that verified journalists saw the post appear natively on Daniel Cormier’s feed strongly suggests that the UFC commentator was the victim of a high-profile security hack while prepping for the live broadcast.

Daniel Cormier target of a high-profile hack?

As the UFC White House production team fought through humidity and weather delays on the South Lawn, Daniel Cormier’s account pushed out a highly unusual tweet while he was live on commentary.

“The masks are off @erictrump,” it read.

If Daniel Cormier’s profile was indeed breached by someone who used fabricated AI screenshots to create a scandal, it would be a highly ironic moment for the former two-division champion. Throughout his post-fight media career, Cormier has been skeptical of fighters who blamed controversial social media activity on mysterious hackers.

Most notably, Cormier publicly criticized former light heavyweight champion and UFC White House co-main eventer Alex Pereira on his YouTube channel during a massive promotional feud in 2025. When ‘Poatan’ blamed a highly critical, disheartening tweet about the UFC on an account breach following his loss to Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313, ‘DC’ openly mocked the excuse.

“Pereira is a liar, Pereira did not get hacked,” Cormier said. “Pereira might have tweeted something and then somebody called him was like, ‘Yo, calm down, let’s chill.’

“I don’t believe the hacked thing, bro. It’s too convenient. It was too specific. I’m saying it publicly.”

And well, he was proved right as Alex Pereira’s manager then admitted that the tweet was actually posted out of frustration after a camp miscommunication.

“It was a miscommunication because Alex found out through social media and stuff like that and he was upset,” he told Ariel Helwani. “That’s why he sent that tweet. But he regrets it because he was wrong.

“He didn’t know anything that was going on. It was kind of a miscommunication between camp and manager and UFC, but it’s not the UFC’s fault. He just said that.”

Now, finding himself on the receiving end of a genuinely terrifying frame job, the former UFC double champion will have to rethink his long-held skepticism of the “hacked” excuse.