UFC CEO Dana White declared on Tuesday’s episode of “The Katie Miller Podcast” that not only does he fiercely defend his friendship with President Donald Trump, but that it was his idea to have a UFC event at the White House.
Trump is planning to host a UFC event on the White House lawn in celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday. White predicted the event would have “the greatest fight card ever assembled.”
After the short-lived honeymoon phase that followed his inauguration, Trump has faced waves of criticism from both sides of politics, which in turn, often splashes back into whomever allies with him. White, however, declared he simply doesn’t care.
“You’ve been openly supportive of President Trump for a long time. Has that ever cost UFC any business either domestically or abroad?” podcast host Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller asked.
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“I don’t give a s—. I don’t know the answer to that question,” White replied. “I’ve gotten to a point in my life, especially after COVID and all the nutty s— that went on during that time, that I only want to be in business with and talk to people that I’m aligned with.”
While noting he does have an ongoing debate with Trump about which movie in the “Rocky” series is best, he has a nuanced friendship with the president.
“I think when somebody is president, they’re going to do things you agree with and things you don’t agree with. But you’re not in that position, and whoever is the president, is,” he said. “And at the end of the day, my relationship with him, we’re friends. And you don’t always agree with the friends on lots of things, but it doesn’t mean you don’t be friends with them anymore.”
“He’s a great guy,” White continued. “He’s a great human being. He’s a great, he has a great family. I love his family. Ivanka and Jared are two of the greatest people you’ll ever meet. So I don’t really get into any of that stuff. As friends, I would say, the biggest but weirdest thing we’ve ever disagreed on is the best ‘Rocky’ movie.”
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During another portion of the podcast, he was asked about who came up with the idea of having a UFC event at the White House to celebrate 250 years of independence.
“The president did. We were at a fight, and he leans over and says, ‘We should do a fight at the White House,’ and I said, ‘Yes, yes we should.’”
He was then asked how one gets tickets to such a historic event.
“So there’s allotments. Obviously, the president has the most. I have 200. Ari Emanuel has 200. And, you know, we sent out invitations to people that we wanted to invite,” he said. He later added, “I think there’ll be world leaders there, but there’s going to be a lot of military there. The president wants all the branches of the military represented at the fight. And, so more military people will be there than actual invites.”
