Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White has made a significant announcement following President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Having actively campaigned for Trump and joined him at multiple UFC events during the election cycle, White has now declared that he is stepping away from politics for good. “I’m never f***ing doing this again,” White told the far-left magazine New Yorker in an interview published this week. “I want nothing to do with this sh*t. It’s gross. It’s disgusting. I want nothing to do with politics.”
White reportedly made his remarks after UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, New York City’s iconic venue. The event saw President-elect Donald Trump in attendance, joined by several of his Cabinet picks, including Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson. Other notable guests included singer Kid Rock. At one point during the event, Trump shared an embrace with Joe Rogan, the top-rated podcaster who is a regular in UFC circles, known for calling fights and interviewing fighters post-match.
“It’s always loud when he comes here, but now that he’s won? Now that he’s the President again? Oh, my God,” Rogan said, according to the report by the New Yorker’s Sam Eagan. The report outlines the history of the UFC and Trump’s role in popularizing mixed martial arts within American entertainment. “As the UFC has grown, there’s been a lot of people that have jumped on the bandwagon and became fans,” White said, according to Eagan. “Trump was there from the beginning.”
Trump’s connection to the UFC and the sport’s appeal to younger men significantly influenced the election’s outcome. “Young men, one of the most unreliable demographics in politics, make up a large part of UFC’s audience,” Eagan wrote. Trump has attended several UFC events between the time he left office in January 2021 and Election Day 2024. Podcasts like Rogan’s are being credited with mobilizing younger male voters, which analysts suggest contributed to Donald Trump’s strong turnout in the recent election.
“You’re getting conversations in these podcasts, and you yourself, as a young kid, get to really see who Donald Trump is,” White said, according to Eagan. “Not the bullsh*t you hear from the far-left media.” For his part, Eagen attempted to draw a comparison between UFC competition and the president-elect.
“The product White is selling—two people locked in a cage, engaging in a mixture of boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu, Muay Thai, and karate among other martial arts—mirrors Trump’s own appeal in many respects,” he wrote. “The U.F.C. alternates between the camp theatrics of show business and a kind of abject brutality that is impossible to look away from. The sport is now fully in the mainstream, but it still has a chip on its shoulder, casting itself and its fans as widely misunderstood.”
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.