The Politics of a UFC Fight at the White House
Within minutes, Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, will tell the world that after 21 hours of talks in Islamabad, officials had failed to reach a deal to end the war with Iran. But this will not alter Trump’s plans for the evening. A bona fide UFC buff, Trump settles into his cage-side seat next to White to view the fight on the bloodstained mat in front of them. Surrounded by, among others, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and several family members, Trump stares bluntly as Swanson and Landwehr go at it. Swanson’s children, to the President’s immediate left, do not. Royal buries her head in Kenda’s armpit. Saint, on the verge of tears, covers his mouth with his hands. King clasps his head, ready to shield his eyes if need be. “I mean, look at this sh-t,” White says to me. “Imagine being these little kids and seeing your dad do this.”In these moments, the brutal nature of mixed martial arts (MMA)—a sport involving a ruthless combination of punching, kicking, and grappling—isn’t lost on White. He says one of his proudest achievements is that no one has died during a UFC competition. MMA was once considered so savage that at the turn of the century, unlike pornography and other controversial fare, it wasn’t even carried on pay-per-view in many places. Now, the UFC is so mainstream that CBS, a network that on Saturday nights once aired Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, is showing Swanson club Landwehr’s cranium with his right hand, knocking him out in the first round.
—Photograph by Ariel Fisher for TIMEPresident Trump and Dana White, right, enter the Kaseya Center in Miami for UFC 327.
Trump, however, has no such qualms. Why choose a UFC fight over all the other activities he could have hosted in his backyard to mark America’s birthday? “Well, No. 1, I like it,” he tells TIME, while sitting in a Kaseya Center backroom before the walkout. But also he has immense faith in White. “The job he’s done is second to none. I’ve never seen anything like it.”In his quarter-century running the UFC, White has staged fights on five continents; several have drawn more than 50,000 attendees. But he’s never faced expectations quite like this. Beyond variables like extreme weather that are out of his control, the logistical and security challenges are acute—especially in the wake of the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April. D.C. will be on high alert, all eyes trained on White, but true to form, the man who despises showing frailty projects only confidence. “I don’t sleep a lot, but it’s not because I’m worried about anything,” says White. “It’s because my life is so f-cking awesome.”
He was working as a manager for a few fighters when he learned that the UFC, which was founded in 1993 with no weight classes and minimal rules, was on the verge of bankruptcy. He convinced an old high school classmate, Lorenzo Fertitta, and his older brother Frank, who had taken over their father’s casino operation, that the MMA organization could thrive in a world where boxing was in disarray. White persuaded them to buy the UFC for $2 million in early 2001, and they installed him as president.
Heavyweights Josh Hokit and Curtis Blaydes fight at the UFC 327 in Miami on April 11, 2026. Hokit was added to the White House card after his win.The UFC remained on shaky footing until 2005, when The Ultimate Fighter—a reality show featuring contenders battling for a spot on the circuit—became a hit on Spike TV. “It was our Trojan horse to get on television,” says White, whose show launched the year after The Apprentice. (White says he didn’t watch.) But it was a slow burn. “Dana and I would fly around to all these crazy just mom-and-pop sort of sponsorships,” says Craig Piligian, a former Survivor producer who helped White create the program. “I remember going to Vermont, going everywhere with him, and we just could not get $1.”As the UFC grew, Trump sent White occasional notes of encouragement. UFC fighters like Chuck Liddell, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey became household names. In 2016, WME-IMG, the talent-management and entertainment conglomerate run by Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, led a group that bought the UFC for $4 billion, further scaling White’s business. “All we needed Dana to do—and this is not a simple thing, this is the meat of it—is put on the best fights in the world and really know how to promote them and make the proper matchups,” says Emanuel. “And so that part we knew we had, as long as he remained with us. Then we could do everything else.” White, who by this time had a 9% stake in the UFC, made some $360 million in the deal.That same year Trump asked White to talk at the Republican National Convention. “He’s a very good speaker, very inspirational-type speaker,” says Trump. “I know guys who are successful, they can’t speak.” White’s circle advised him to turn Trump down. “Everybody said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it,’” says White. “It was about more than ‘You don’t want to get into politics.’ The bigger one was ‘He’s never gonna win.’ And I was like, ‘Well, whether he wins or not, the guy’s been a good friend to me.’”When COVID hit, White continued to stage events in Las Vegas and Florida during the shutdown. In the summer of 2020, the UFC secured a facility in Abu Dhabi, named Fight Island, to host bouts in a bubble. No one got seriously ill there, and with the UFC practically the only league offering programming, even more fans flocked to the sport. “That’s the bedrock of who he is,” says Mark Shapiro, who was at the time president of Endeavor, the new name for WME-IMG. “You tell him he can’t do something, and the game is on.” Pedro Rodriguez, a 22-year-old fan from Miami, started following the UFC during this period. “Dana was the first one to go against the system,” he says. In February 2021, Endeavor bought a 100% stake in the UFC: it merged the UFC and WWE and took a new company, TKO Group Holdings, public in September 2023.
Inside the UFC headquarters in Las Vegas.Going into the 2024 election, White helped broker appearances for Trump on shows popular with young men, connecting him with the Nelk Boys; Will Compton and Taylor Lewan of Bussin’ With the Boys; Adin Ross; Theo Von. “I had this philosophy that if he stayed on Fox News, he couldn’t win the election,” says White. How significant was White to the campaign? “Very important,” Trump says. “He introduced me to people I never heard of, young kids. I mean, I was being interviewed by 20-year-old kids. I’m saying, ‘Where the hell did you meet these people?’ They’re called influencers. But I did a lot. I became friendly with some of them. They’re nice kids, and they do have a big audience, and everything helps.”Then White caught the big kahuna. For eight years, he had been asking Joe Rogan, who’s been calling UFC bouts since 2002, to have Trump guest on his wildly influential podcast. Finally, Rogan relented: Trump spent three hours with Rogan in October 2024, a conversation that now has more than 62 million views on YouTube. Rogan offered Kamala Harris a slot too. Harris later said she regretted passing.While on a flight to Mar-a-Lago the day before the election, White says he was “blowing up” Rogan’s phone, trying to get him to publicly endorse Trump. “I was grinding on that thing right down to the last minute,” he says. That night, at a rally in Pittsburgh, Trump announced the news: Rogan had backed him. During his election-night victory celebration, Trump called White to the podium. “Dana! Dana! Dana!” Trump’s supporters yelled.
White has multiple weapons on display in his Las Vegas officeThe decor in White’s spacious office at UFC headquarters in Las Vegas is, well, striking. There’s an X-rated Japanese photograph, and samurai swords from the 1600s rest on a coffee table. There’s an encased AK-47 and a grenade in another area; in the magazine of the assault rifle, which is wrapped in $1 bills, are items humans kill for, such as cocaine, diamonds, and gold. Across the room are two pistols. One barrel is cloaked in a red bible cover, the other in a black one. “Those two books have killed more people than any handgun ever made,” says White. “I am very antireligion.”Cigars, guitars, sports memorabilia: they’re all there. “I am unapologetically masculine,” White says. Men, in White’s mind, never split the bill when out to dinner with a woman. Men don’t shirk family responsibilities. And they never, ever, vocalize their mental-health struggles. “Talking about it publicly, I just feel like it opens the door to make young men think that it’s OK to just f-cking go, ‘Oh, I’m having mental [health issues],’” White says in a mock whiny voice. “Handle it behind closed doors. Don’t show that weakness to anybody.”
White says staging a fight at the White House is patriotic, not political
White also has ties to the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement, whose collection of “biohacking bros” promoting alternative remedies, antiaging methods, and vaccine skepticism often intersects with the manosphere. “Love him,” White says of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I feel he’s on the right side of things.” White turned his back on conventional medicine coming out of the COVID pandemic, and in 2022 he began working with Gary Brecka, a popular wellness influencer. Brecka, who is not a doctor, put White on a regimen of supplements, cold plunges, IV drips, and red-light therapy that has left him feeling leaner, more energized, and no longer suffering from sleep apnea. “This is what changed my life,” says White. “Go strap that CPAP machine on your fat face and good luck. I wish you all the best.”If his language sounds uncouth, it has hardly hindered his ascent. In January 2025 he was elected to Meta’s board, where he is a strong advocate for free speech. That same month Meta founder, CEO, and chairman Mark Zuckerberg praised “masculine energy” on Rogan’s podcast, saying that “having a culture that, like, celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive.” White admires Zuckerberg’s smarts, competitive instincts, and ability to run a full day of meetings on time. He puts Zuckerberg in the same category of alpha role models as Trump, Carl Icahn, and Michael Jordan. “What I didn’t realize about Mark until I got on the board,” White says, “is Zuckerberg might be one of the biggest killers in the history of killers.” (Meta did not comment for this story.)
“I would stop you, sir,” White replies.
“How many are you going to have at the Ellipse?” the President asks. The park across from the White House is hosting a viewing party for the fights and a fan fest, highlighted by a performance by the Zac Brown Band, the night before. White tells Trump the Ellipse can hold up to 85,000 people. Tickets to all the events are free but require registration; guests who attend the South Lawn fight will also need to show ID.
Donald Trump at the Kaseya Center in Miami for UFC 327.
White swore off politics after the 2024 presidential campaign. But, I ask him, isn’t bringing your business to the White House an inherently political act? “You can make anything political if you want to,” says White. “I love this country like anybody on the left loves this country. I love this country like anybody on the right loves this country. This is basically me spending a sh-tload of money to celebrate the 250th birthday of America, with America and the rest of the world.”Trump planted the seeds for UFC 250, leaning over to White at the 2024 Madison Square Garden fight 11 days after his re-election and suggesting a White House card. In February 2025, calls between the Administration and the UFC officially commenced. UFC staffers have made more than a dozen planning visits to D.C. in the past three months; the organization is installing temporary seats on the South Lawn and will have to foot the bill for damaged grass. The UFC will bring in an 87-ft. canopy to light the Octagon, more than double the height of a typical UFC grid. White insisted on the extra room to ensure that nothing obstructs the White House TV shot.White says the UFC will lose approximately $30 million on the event. “This is the greatest earned marketing tool of all time,” says Shapiro, now president and COO of TKO. “It’s a once-in-a-generation moment. The kind of attention, awareness, and sampling we’re going to get from audiences around the world, on that day alone, will be more than we could get in an entire year.”
Dana White goes through plans for UFC Freedom 250 at UFC headquarters
Fighters will warm up in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and shower back at their hotels. The main-event competitors are set to walk out from the Oval Office. And while most fans will not enjoy access to West Wing restrooms, White is promising high-class temporary facilities for the 4,000-plus spectators. “We’re bringing in real bathrooms,” he says.When the White House fight lineup was released in March, some UFC fans complained that the card lacked real star power. Where was McGregor? (He’s wasn’t ready for the D.C. card and will fight at UFC 329 on July 11.) What about Jon “Bones” Jones? “I have to build a card of people that I’m confident in and I believe will show up to the fight,” says White. “And Jon Jones is the least dependable guy that you could ever know.” (Jones has pulled out of several scheduled bouts over the years; he has said he was “lowballed” in White House fight negotiations.) Analysts cite a dearth of superstar fighters as an ongoing business concern. White stands by the lineup, arguing the emerging athletes at the White House could break out. He did make one change at Trump’s suggestion, however. In Miami, Trump wondered why American heavyweight Derrick Lewis, a fan favorite, wasn’t on the card. White immediately added Lewis and matched him with fellow American Josh Hokit. While Hokit’s heel act can wear thin, his thrilling victory at UFC 327 won the respect of hardcore fans.No women are fighting at the White House. White says he wanted to set a title bout between Zhang Weili of China and Mackenzie Dern, the American-Brazilian fighter. A Chinese athlete would increase the international audience of the card, which also includes fighters from Brazil, France, and Canada. But according to White, Zhang is taking time off from fighting. “We did try to make a women’s fight,” says White. “We couldn’t get it done.” (A representative for Zhang did not respond to requests for comment.)Even staunch UFC supporters have wondered if the White House hype is worth it. Rogan, who will be in D.C. calling the fight, referred to it as a “gimmick” on his podcast. “At first I thought, ‘That’s not nice,’” says Trump. “And then I realized, it is a gimmick. Life is a gimmick, if you think about it, right? But it’s a good gimmick. It’s something that will never happen again. Nobody will ever have the privilege of doing something like this in front of the White House. It’s going to be very unique. It’s going to be amazing. I think it’s great for America, frankly.”More than four hours later, past 12:30 a.m., Trump has left the premises, and White has concluded his post-card press conference. As White works his way through the bowels of the arena, UFC Freedom 250, still more than two months away, is front of mind. “Now we go in and start building all the bells and whistles,” he says. “We’ve got to get it all dialed in, and then we have to execute that night. We’re putting on the most historic sporting event in history, and now we have to deliver. We will absolutely, positively deliver.” —With reporting by Simmone Shah
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