UFC CEO Dana White conceded that his company’s upcoming Fight Night on the White House lawn could damage his longtime buddy, President Trump.
When asked if he thought Trump, 79, “needs” the controversial UFC Freedom 250 in light of his cratering popularity, White, 56, admitted, “Probably not.”
“I bet he probably wishes that this wasn’t happening, but it’s happening,” White, who has been a friend of Trump since he helped save White’s company in 2001, told Rolling Stone on Tuesday. “He’s never said anything to me like that, but this guy’s dealing with s--t that people like you and I can’t even imagine.”
The first-of-its-kind White House event, which will be held on June 14—Trump’s 80th birthday—comes at a time when the president’s disapproval rating has eclipsed 58 percent, its highest point at any time in his two presidential terms, including even after the January 6 insurrection.
“When you own a global business, you can’t just bend and break and roll over for every bad thing that happens in the world, because I guarantee you a lot more s--t is gonna happen this year,” White said. “And I’m not gonna not run my business because of it.”
During the interview, White likened putting on the event during Trump’s unpopular War in Iran and America’s economic downturn to running his company during a global pandemic.
“I went through COVID,” the UFC president said. “No, nothing like that ever concerns me. The world is a very rough place, man. There’s always bad things going on.”
“I own a global business,” he said. “I still have Russians fighting on my card. These guys are under contract with me. And I have Russians, I have Ukrainians, I have Israelis, I have Pakistanis. You name it, I have them all in my card. And guess what, for the rest of existence, that stuff’s gonna be going on.”
“As far as his popularity as a president and his policies, I mean, that stuff goes like this over a four-year term for every president,” he said, making an up-and-down waving motion with his hand, “but it doesn’t change my relationship with him as my friend.”
Despite widespread backlash for the event—even from the UFC’s most popular fight-night commentator-turned-podcaster, Joe Rogan, who called it a “gimmick”—White has pressed on.
Steps away from Trump’s East Wing Ballroom construction project, the White House’s South Lawn is currently littered with cranes setting up the octagon ring and grandstands for the UFC Freedom 250 event.
In addition to Trump’s potential further approval loss, White is set to take a loss of his own for the MAGA UFC event. The Fight Night, which White has said will use no taxpayer money, is reportedly projected to cost more than $60 million, with UFC parent company, TKO Group Holdings, expected to take a net loss of roughly $30 million.
“If the president of the United States calls me and needs something from me, you bet your a-- I’m gonna figure out how to help,” White concluded.
