Why Dana White could be Trump’s tough-talking enforcer

We’re used to fighting talk from Donald Trump, so it’s hardly surprising that reports suggest America’s next president could appoint a real bruiser as his press secretary.

Dana White, the CEO of mixed martial arts organisation the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), stole the show during Trump’s victory rally with his punchy speech – and that attention has cemented his prospects for grabbing a job in Trump’s government.

White, 55, burst onto the political stage during the president-elect’s victory speech on Nov 6. Trump gave him a glowing introduction, saying: “Nobody’s done a better job in sports. He gets these fighters and they really go at it, and it’s become one of the most successful sports enterprises anywhere.”

He then invited White to take the microphone – and he did, though he hardly needed the amplification. “This is what happens when the machine comes after you!” roared White. “What you’ve seen over the last several years, this is what it looks like. Couldn’t stop him, he keeps going forward, he doesn’t quit. He’s the most resilient, hard-working man I’ve ever met in my life, his family are incredible people. This is karma, ladies and gentlemen.”

Some Trump supporters have since called for him to be appointed as press secretary when the 78-year-old returns to the White House – in a role akin to something like America’s chief marketing officer.

But how did Trump get the UFC chief in his corner in the first place?

White was born into an Irish-American family in Connecticut in 1969. He had a troubled education, getting kicked out of catholic high school Bishop Gorman for bad behaviour. But boxing proved his salvation – although, after seeing the long-term damage that the sport can wreak, he decided to focus on the organisation side instead of being in the ring.

That didn’t stop him from taking a savage beating, though. When he was 21, he was attacked by a gang of youths. “These dudes beat the living s--- out of me for a good 20 minutes,” he recalled. “At one point, I was on one knee and this f---ing guy must have punched me in this ear a thousand times.” The attack left him with Ménière’s disease, which gives sufferers vertigo-like symptoms.

White learnt his trade from former boxing champ Peter Welch, and soon set up his own boxercise business. But he couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble. Local mobster James “Whitey” Bulger sent a heavy to his gym, demanding that White pay him $2,500 – or else. Instead, White fled to Las Vegas.

There he worked as a trainer, even preparing Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg for a role, and managed UFC fighters Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. In 2001, he joined forces with school friend Lorenzo Fertitta to buy the troubled UFC for $2 million. “This thing could actually be really big,” White recalls thinking at the time – and he was right.

Thanks to new strategies, such as building an audience via TV reality show The Ultimate Fighter, interest in the UFC exploded. By 2008, the company was valued at $1.1bn. Today, it is thought to be worth some $11.3bn (White himself has an estimated $500 million net worth). That boost to mixed martial arts also launched the careers of stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey – the latter after White, with some reluctance, introduced women’s bouts.

Trump entered the picture soon after White acquired the UFC and played a key role in its success. While many people criticised the sport’s brutality, with Senator John McCain campaigning to ban it from cable TV and calling it “human cockfighting”, Trump offered up his properties for MMA events and helped to promote it. “Nobody took us seriously then, except Donald Trump,” White has since said.

He’s certainly returned the favour. White fervently endorsed Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, and has become a MAGA hero. Following the assassination attempt on his friend during a rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024, White said: “Everybody wants to act like a tough guy, well when the s--- goes down, you find out who tough guys are and who tough guys are not… This guy is the legitimate, ultimate American bada-- of all time.’

White’s boisterous UFC fights have regularly played host to Trump, to the raucous approval of the crowd – and the theatricality of such an occasion, plus its strongman version of masculinity, clearly delights the president-elect. There’s a big crossover between their bases: the UFC estimates that 70 per cent of its fans are male, the median age is 35, and therefore a prime voter pool for him.

In the past, Trump has directly plucked from White’s organisation to fill posts in his inner political circle. In 2017, he appointed Steven Cheung – the then-director of communications for public affairs for UFC – as Special Assistant to the President and Assistant Communications Director. Cheung had earlier joined the 2016 Trump campaign as its director of rapid response.

Trump’s relationship with White also fits his strategy of looking to those outside the political establishment for support. He also has a mutually beneficial relationship with X (formerly Twitter) boss Elon Musk, who used his platform to campaign for Trump, and who offered a controversial $1 million daily lottery to voters in battleground states.

In return, Trump has promised Musk a role in his administration, tackling spending waste. Musk has referred to it as the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, which matches the name of his cryptocurrency Dogecoin (the value of which has rocketed in recent weeks). Musk could also use his newfound position to win government contracts for company SpaceX, and lobby for fewer regulations on his Tesla cars.

We could essentially be looking at the formation of a new business conglomerate, with Trump – wielding a huge mandate –as CEO, and White and Musk as his two contrasting but vital enforcers: one a fighter using his UFC base and tough talk to market Trump ventures, the other a tech billionaire with X and a bulging bank account at his disposal. Certainly, it’s a trinity that represents a formidable new force in American politics. Whether as press secretary or not, we can expect to hear much more from White yet.