It is a fact that the UFC did more than any sports organization in U.S. history to support a political candidacy, in this case helping launder Donald Trump’s image after he tried to steal an election on January 6th. This was accomplished numerous ways, chief among them by countless fawning, celebratory appearances at marquee UFC events. Trump received this help not merely during a candidacy for president, but a time when law enforcement began to close in on his criminal behavior. For helping Trump escape accountability, the UFC has been rewarded by Trump in helping push boxing legislation favorable to TKO as well as being gifted an event on the White House lawn.
UFC’s and White’s surrogacy happened in plain sight and the rewards for doing as much are public to the point of being literal spectacle. So why is UFC President Dana White unable to admit all or really any of this happened?
Now that the UFC White House event is less than three weeks away, White has been making the media rounds to promote it. Naturally, questions about White’s relationship to Donald Trump and the UFC’s robust support for him have emerged. Strangely, however, White is showing a curious inability to acknowledge what everyone can clearly see.
White suggests, for example, he’s never been ‘political’ despite offering outrageous help to return the most extreme political project in the U.S. since the Civil Rights movement to power. White also claims his relationship with Trump isn’t transactional despite Trump essentially admitting all of his relationships are, at least in part, transactional (that’s to say nothing of the obviousness of the political trade beyond Trump’s admission).
It is as if White believes anyone within earshot of his message is unable to reason beyond the capacity of a toddler. There’s no attempt to even acknowledge what is visibly unusual and brazen behavior between two powerful parties. Instead, White engages in a ‘who’s on first?'‘ confused routine where conversation about basic facts collapses in fruitless, circular pursuits.
Why can’t White and the UFC talk candidly about their behavior and the political trade they made? What does an unwillingness to talk in truthful terms reveal about what’s transpired?
In this video, I examine a few of White’s recent media appearances where he tries to float the idea he and his organization has been politically neutral. As you’ll see, his argument is infantile on its face, but also under cut by other appearances where White openly defends Trump’s political choices and admits to encouraging media surrogates to lean into partisanship.
