Dana White, the CEO of UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), is a Donald Trump loyal. The 54-year-old once proved it by risking a relationship with a crucial sponsor, who demanded he take down a pro-Trump post from his social media account. White is a known supporter of Trump and has previously spoken at the Republican’s election rallies.
While speaking on comedian Theo Von’s podcast, This Past Weekend , White recalled an incident on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, where he stood his ground and even got involved in a spat with a Trump opponent. He revealed, “I posted a video for Trump. Right? On my social media, one of our big sponsors called and said, ‘Take that down.'”
It didn’t go well with White, who refused to remove the online support. “Know what I said? Go f**k yourself,” he said. The UFC director continued, “You vote for whoever you want to vote for, and I’ll vote for whoever I want to vote for,” adding, “That’s how this works. I don’t even care who you’re voting for; it’s none of my f***ing business. F*** you. Don’t ever f***ing call me and tell me who to vote for.”
Trump has been frequent at UFC events in recent years, including the recent event at Madison Square Garden. The 77-year-old has been in New York City (for his civil fraud trial). On Saturday, November 11, when he arrived for UFC 295, the crowd lauded him with cheers. He sat next to his staunch supporter White, ex-Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, and rockstar Kid Rock, as per The Independent.
While on the podcast, White made it clear he wouldn’t entertain such demands, “I’m at a point now in my life and my career where I want to be with people that I’m aligned with,” he explained. “It’s not just about the money; it is about the money because it’s a sponsorship deal, but it’s not just [about the money].”
NEW: UFC’s Dana White says he told a big sponsor to “go f*** yourself” after they told him to delete a social media post that he shared of Donald Trump. Amazing 🔥🔥🔥 “One of our big sponsors called and said, take that down.” “I said, go f*** yourself. You vote for whoever… pic.twitter.com/Ay9yqmmyXh
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 14, 2023
He clarified, “I’m not going to take a bigger offer if it’s not something that I am aligned with and I don’t 100 percent believe in.” White further said, “When you do a sponsorship deal with somebody, you have to look deep into who they are and who’s running the company, who’s making the decisions, and are you aligned?”
The admiration here is mutual as Trump also spoke highly of White. The Republican front-runner praised, “Dana is one of the few people that you can say, probably [the UFC] could never be the same without him,” per Essentially Sports. The former POTUS continued, “Dana is very unique, and what he’s done with the UFC is incredible.”
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He also addressed continued support from the UFC director. “You know, Dana is a tough guy, and he’s a smart guy, and he’s a loyal person. I helped Dana at the very beginning when nobody wanted to put UFC on. And I had places that were able to do it, and I did it.” For the 2020 elections, UFC went out of their way to campaign for Trump.
And in one of the rallies, White heaped praises for Trump. “President Trump built the greatest economy in our nation’s history and created opportunities for all Americans like no one before him,” reported The Guardian.