Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White is scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump on Monday to discuss his appointment as White House press secretary.
President Trump announced the proposal on Saturday, days after Republicans suffered record losses in the midterm elections. In a post on Truth Social, the president praised White as a “violent fighter and warrior” who brings in leading UFC fighters as “assistants” to “protect us from the crazy left.”
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However, it remains unclear how serious this offer is. White confirmed in a press conference on Saturday that he would be heading to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump. However, he also indicated concerns about the current workload.
“I’m already getting a lot of work,” said White, a Trump ally and donor. “We have a meeting on Monday, so I think we’ll have more to talk about after that.”
White also posted a photo of himself standing behind the White House podium on his Instagram Stories. The caption read, “On to the next chapter.”
Trump also posted an AI-generated meme about his job candidates.
On Sunday, he shared an animation of President White surrounded by lines of combatants in the White House briefing room. One of them body-slammed a reporter who asked, “Is Trump a threat to democracy?”
The press secretary role has been vacant since Katie Zachariah’s brief term ended last month. She was criticized for calling herself a lawyer without a U.S. license and resigned within five days of being hired.
Zakaria replaces Caroline Leavitt, who stepped down from her role at the end of August, citing the needs of her family to grow.
But why is the head of a mixed martial arts franchise being considered as the new public face of the Trump administration? Al Jazeera explains this and more in this brief commentary.
Who is Dana White?
A former bouncer and junior boxer, White began his career as a businessman by opening a boxing gym in Boston and training other fighters.
He then moved to Las Vegas, where he continued to operate a gym and manage emerging fighters.
The UFC was founded in 1993, around the time White settled in Las Vegas. The organization sought to provide an arena where martial artists from a variety of disciplines, from boxing to wrestling to jiu-jitsu, could compete “without restrictions.”
In 2001, White persuaded two of his casino mogul friends to buy the UFC for $2 million and appoint him president. Since then, he has built his company through big fights and lucrative pay-per-view television deals.
Since then, he has remained a fixture in the UFC for over 20 years. White is credited with bringing mixed martial arts into the mainstream and turning a fledgling franchise into a global business.
In 2016, UFC was sold for $4 billion, and in 2023, White became CEO after a merger with World Wrestling Entertainment worth about $21 billion.
How do Trump and White know each other?
White is a longtime supporter of Trump and has appeared alongside him at campaign events for nearly a decade.
Trump, on the other hand, has a history of hosting UFC fights dating back to 2001. At the time, the UFC was struggling with criticism that the sport was too violent.
White had just become UFC president and reached an agreement with Trump to hold that year’s UFC Championship at Trump’s Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The following year, the UFC returned to the Taj Mahal.
White, who spoke in support of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention, recalled how the early collaboration opened doors for the UFC and gave him easier access to other venues.
“There was no arena that needed us,” White said at the time. “This guy contacted me, and he’s always been my friend.”
The 2016 election cycle will mark Trump’s first successful bid for public office. In 2018, White was invited to visit the White House during Trump’s presidency.
During the 2020 election, White again supported Trump as he sought a second term as president. Mr. White also donated $1 million to the Trump campaign and was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention that year.
“I’ve known this man for 20 years. In fact, since he became president of the United States, we’ve become even closer,” White told supporters at a rally in Colorado. “He’s a warrior. He loves this country. He’s done great things for this country. We have to win this election again.”
Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. But four years later, in 2024, he ran for office again and won a second term.
Trump credited White with helping him connect with young voters during the campaign.
“He introduced me to people I’d never heard of, young kids,” Trump told Time magazine in May. “I was being interviewed by 20-year-old kids saying, ‘Where the hell did you meet these people?'” They’re called influencers. ”
How did the UFC shape President Trump’s second term?
Experts say Trump’s 2024 campaign benefited greatly from his ties to the UFC.
Ahead of his victory, Trump courted influential figures such as UFC fan Theo Von and UFC host Joe Rogan, whose podcast has about 11 million listeners per episode.
President Trump is also using his second term as president to raise the profile of the UFC, including one of the events in his plans to celebrate the 250th U.S. Independence Day.
The tournament, dubbed “UFC Freedom 250,” allowed entry into a national monument, a rarity for a commercial event.
For example, Mr. White hosted a weigh-in of combatants on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, with uniformed military personnel standing as an honor guard. The match itself was held on the White House lawn.
President Trump called the event “one of the most exciting days in the history of our legendary White House.”
But critics have warned that the incident could amount to a conflict of interest, with Trump reportedly buying up to $50,000 in stock in TKO Holdings, the UFC’s parent company, in the months before the fight.
The lawsuit also challenged the UFC’s use of public facilities, calling the event “deeply corrupt.”
How has the announcement been received?
Some opposition officials have dismissed Trump’s idea of appointing White as press secretary as a way to divert attention from the midterm elections.
The Republican Party, led by Trump, suffered a record defeat in the November 3 election, losing its majority in both houses of Congress.
Melat Quiros, a Democrat elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, said Saturday that Trump’s overtures to White “show how insincere this person is and how ridiculous this administration is.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said Trump’s choice raised questions about the president’s safety.
“It would be really funny if he wasn’t president, if it wasn’t dangerous,” Kelly said. “Countries around the world continue to laugh at us because of what he’s doing.”
There is also speculation that President Trump may have nominated the wrong Dana White.
A woman with the same name worked as a Pentagon press secretary during President Trump’s first term. She denied having been approached to become press secretary.
“Thank you to everyone who sent congratulations. But you got Dana White wrong,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
