Art Davie, a co-founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, shared candid memories in a bombshell interview about the teenage Donald Trump he lived with at the New York Military Academy more than six decades ago, describing a 16-year-old who already exhibited the self-promoting instincts that would define his later life.
The revelations came shortly before President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday celebration, which featured a UFC event on the South Lawn of the White House inside the very octagonal cage that Davie himself invented.
“He was an egomaniac when he was 16,” Davie told the publication. “He was a great flag waver for himself. He wanted everyone to recognize he was the GOAT in everything he did out there.”
A Divided Room at a Military School
When Davie arrived in September 1962 as a 15-year-old private from Brooklyn for his first year at the private boarding school in Cornwall, New York, Trump had already claimed the bottom bunk in their shared room in Company E. Trump, then in his fourth year at the academy an hour’s drive north of New York City, served as supply sergeant. Their quarters also housed the M1 rifles that cadets used for drills and ceremonies, though the weapons had their firing pins removed.
Even then, Trump harbored complaints about his status, Davie recalled. Trump believed he should have been promoted to captain rather than serving as supply sergeant and was deeply impressed by President John F. Kennedy, particularly with how the media amplified Kennedy’s star quality without Kennedy having to boast about it himself.
An Argument Over the GOAT
Though the acronym for “Greatest of All Time” hadn’t yet entered popular use, the concept was alive and well in their dormitory debates. Davie remembered one particular dispute over soccer, where Trump insisted on his superiority despite two fellow cadets from South America being recognized as the school’s best players in that sport. Trump did excel at baseball, however.
“I remember Trump and I getting in an argument about the fact that he’s the GOAT when it came to soccer,” Davie said. “I said, ‘No, in baseball, you could say you’re the GOAT.'”
The Inspection That Split Them Up
The two cadets maintained what Davie characterized as a good relationship until an inspection by U.S. Army officers changed everything. During the visit by a lieutenant colonel and a lieutenant, Trump approached the evaluation with rigid formality while Davie chatted casually with the lieutenant colonel, even joking that the M1 rifles were “only pop guns” without their firing pins. A pass would have meant every cadet could wear a small silver star on the right sleeve.
Trump erupted after the inspection, accusing Davie of talking to the officers like they were on the streets of Brooklyn. The confrontation marked the only serious argument between the roommates. After the Christmas holiday, the pair found themselves reassigned to different rooms, with Davie moved to Section 9 behind the main barracks, where he said cadets received single-bedroom accommodations. Davie has long suspected Trump played a role in the reassignment.
‘Cadet Bonespurs’ and Diverging Paths
After completing the year, Davie finished high school in Manhattan and later enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving 11 months and nine days in Vietnam before attending St. John’s University. He returned home an actual sergeant.
Trump remained at the academy and achieved the captain rank he had coveted by his graduation in 1964. He subsequently received five draft deferments, the final one a permanent medical deferment based on a bone spurs diagnosis from a Queens podiatrist who rented office space in a building owned by Trump’s father, Fred Trump. In 2018, the podiatrist’s daughters revealed their late father had provided the diagnosis as a “favor” to the elder Trump. The story earned Trump a lasting nickname among academy alumni: “Cadet Bonespurs.”
From Bunk Beds to the South Lawn
Davie created and co-produced the UFC in 1993, designing the now-iconic octagonal chain-link cage that has become synonymous with mixed martial arts. That same cage design was erected on the South Lawn for the June 14 UFC event, surrounded by a red, white and blue stage beneath a towering star-and-stripe arch with two large screens.
The finished project included a large arena outside the White House, with numerous free tickets distributed between the South Lawn and the nearby Ellipse, where additional large screens broadcast the fights. The celebration coincided with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
For Davie, watching his former roommate stage the spectacle on the most famous lawn in America represented the latest chapter in a friendship and rivalry that began with a top bunk, a bottom bunk and an argument about who was the GOAT.