Dana White thoughts when Donald Trump tried to | Sports News

UFC President Dana White remained loyal to Donald Trump despite the President trying to start his own MMA promotion in the early 2000s. Trump got into business with Affliction, the UFC’s main rival at the time, after helping White find venues when the promotion was struggling.

In 2008, Trump decided to lend his name and celebrity to the Affliction promotion headed up by executive Tom Atencio. Its first event was on the same night as a UFC card. Nonetheless, White reaffirmed his friendship with the then-future President, whom he unwaveringly supported in the following 17 years.

“He did [launch his own promotion],” White said about Trump to Forbes. “That’s funny. What happened was I want to say it was TMZ was interviewing me one timeand they’re like ‘Donald Trump‘s about to go head to head with you, what do you have to say about that?’

“I said, I’ll never say anything bad about Donald Trump. Donald Trump was good to us. But it’s a testament to how much he likes fighting and what he saw in the UFC back in those days.”

White and the UFC didn’t have to worry about Affliction for long. Affliction had two shows before the third was canceled. The promotion’s existence didn’t last long after that.

“Not at all [threatened],” White continued. “It’s the exact opposite. They were trying to get me to say something bad about him, and I said I never will. This guy was there in the beginning; he’s always been a good friend to me.”

White stepped into the political realm in 2015 after Trump asked him to speak at the Republican National Convention. The UFC chief backed his friend, who defeated Democrat nominee Hilary Clinton to win the Presidency. Trump lost to Joe Biden in his 2020 re-election bid, but White was again at the forefront in 2024 when the 78-year-old sealed his return to the White House by soundly defeating then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

“In 2015, when he hit me up and said, ‘Would you speak at the Republican convention for me?’ He started outwith ‘if you don’t want to do it, I completely understand,'” White said.

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“Everybody told me not to do it. Everybody said don’t get involved in this and he’s never going to win, it’s not worth it. I said, this guy’s been a good guy to me, I’ll do it. When I spoke in [2015], our relationship, that’s when we really started to become good friends.”

On the November 2024 election night after Trump’s win was confirmed, White was again called upon by the President-elect to deliver a passion-fueled speech to the watch party crowd. “This is karma, ladies and gentlemen,” White told an ecstatic crowd.