3 hours ago
Rising from nan South Lawn of nan White House is simply a 92ft-tall skeletal building known arsenic “the Claw”. Beneath it sits an octagonal cage surrounded by sponsor logos, impermanent grandstands and thousands of seats for a mixed martial arts paper connected Sunday nighttime to observe Donald Trump’s 80th day and nan Ultimate Fighting Championship brand.
The arena has prompted comparisons to Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s satire of a early US wherever politics, intermezo and firm branding go indistinguishable. Others person gone further, dismissing it as a “kleptocratic spectacle”.
Either way, nan commercialized trappings are difficult to overlook. Even commemorative “Freedom 250” coins base Donald Trump’s likeness are being marketed successful tandem pinch nan arena astatine value points ranging from astir $250 to $12,000.
Strange things are afoot astatine 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, each of them giving emergence to an evident question: really did we get here?
The keys decoding this peculiar extravaganza lead to 1 man. If it feels for illustration you’ve been seeing Dana White everyplace successful nan weeks starring up to Sunday’s event, you’re not wrong. The UFC main executive has appeared connected NPR, sat for an interview pinch David Remnick connected nan New Yorker Radio Hour podcast, landed a lengthy feature successful Rolling Stone and appeared connected nan cover of Time magazine. It marks a striking move for a conflict promoter who has spent astir of his profession farming power extracurricular nan accepted centers of powerfulness and respectability.
White has go nan astir recognizable carnival barker successful American life since Don King. Unlike King, however, his power extends good beyond nan realm of nan conflict game. Over nan past decade, White has evolved from sports executive into thing rarer: a taste powerfulness broker, governmental surrogate, Meta committee member and 1 of Trump’s astir trusted advisers.
And arsenic White’s institution stages its improbable White House takeover connected Sunday night, nan much revealing communicative whitethorn not beryllium nan surreal visuals of a private, for-profit sporting arena connected national onshore but nan man who helped make it possible. How did Dana White go 1 of nan astir influential figures successful American authorities without ever holding office?
A valuable demographic
The White House arena rests connected an root story that has go cardinal to some men: Trump threw nan UFC a lifeline erstwhile cipher other would.
The communicative originates successful nan early 2000s, erstwhile some White and Trump were astatine their master debased points. The UFC was a fringe spectacle banned successful 36 states that nan legislator John McCain had branded “human cockfighting”. It was struggling to find venues consenting to big its events. Trump, meanwhile, was navigating nan fallout from his casino troubles and remained years distant from nan reality-television comeback that would reconstruct his celebrity.
Their interests converged connected nan Atlantic City boardwalk. Trump’s Taj Mahal casino needed customers. The UFC needed legitimacy. When overmuch of nan sporting constitution wanted small to do pinch MMA, Trump’s edifice hosted 3 events from 2000 to 2001 astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile nan promotion was still fighting for acceptance.
Today, White tells nan communicative arsenic if nan roadworthy from nan UFC’s outlaw years to nan White House section runs straight done nan Taj Mahal. In reality, for overmuch of nan UFC’s emergence from fringe attraction to multibillion-dollar powerhouse, Trump was almost wholly absent from nan communicative nan UFC told astir itself.
That changed starting successful 2016. As Trump became nan leader of a governmental activity and White 1 of its astir visible allies, nan Atlantic City section was retconned from a mostly forgotten business statement into a foundational section successful their mythology. The relationship whitethorn beryllium genuine, but nan centrality of nan communicative is simply a much caller development.
The UFC, now weighted astatine much than $12bn, is often presented arsenic 1 of nan awesome turnaround stories successful modern sports business. The much consequential story, however, whitethorn not beryllium nan maturation of nan institution itself but nan assemblage that grew alongside it.
Boxing and MMA are typically grouped nether nan communal banner of combat sports. Unlike boxing’s accepted fanbase, which skews older and much heavy Black and Hispanic, nan UFC cultivated a younger assemblage that came of property connected WWE, reality tv and net culture. Many consumed accusation done podcasts, YouTube channels and streamers alternatively than newspapers, web tv aliases cablegram news. One manufacture executive years agone summarized nan company’s halfway demographic to nan Guardian arsenic “white kids from nan suburbs who grew up watching pro wrestling and aren’t joined yet” – a demographic that would soon go 1 of nan astir coveted constituencies successful American politics.
While different master sports leagues pursued legitimacy done accepted broadcasters and firm partnerships, White invested heavy successful podcasters, streamers and net personalities. No fig embodied that improvement much than Joe Rogan, whose emergence from UFC commentator to 1 of nan world’s astir influential media personalities mirrored nan maturation of nan promotion itself. The Nelk Boys, Barstool Sports, Theo Von and Adin Ross were not peripheral figures but cardinal characters successful a increasing alternative-media ecosystem that commanded nan attraction of millions of young men.
By nan clip nan political-consultant people caught up and began hand-wringing astir podcasts and “the manosphere”, White had a two-decade caput commencement successful cultivating 1 of its astir valuable audiences. That helps explicate why Trump’s appearances astatine UFC events – he’s attended 4 arsenic a sitting president – felt different from his appearances elsewhere. He was not entering dispute territory aliases attempting persuasion, but stepping into a organization whose media habits, taste references and distrust of accepted authority often aligned pinch his ain governmental appeal.
The overlap extended beyond audiences and media platforms. Over time, White and Trump came to stock a akin narration pinch nan press. Long earlier politicians began speaking of “fake news”, White was treating journalists little arsenic intermediaries than arsenic adversaries. He publically feuded pinch reporters, mocked unfavorable sum and often portrayed disapproval arsenic grounds of bias alternatively than scrutiny. Reporters who crossed nan promotion risked losing access, while others became targets of nationalist ridicule.
The hostility was not identical to Trump’s, nor is it clear who influenced whom. But nan tactical parallels became progressively difficult to ignore. By nan clip Trump emerged arsenic nan ascendant unit successful Republican politics, he and White were operating from remarkably akin playbooks.
The similarities don’t extremity there. Trump built his estimation arsenic a dealmaker while facing decades of complaints from contractors and vendors who said they were ne'er afloat paid. White built nan UFC into a world powerhouse while fending disconnected disapproval from fighters who based on they received excessively small of nan sport’s revenues. Operating successful different industries, some men developed a akin reputation: relentless promoters who created empires, and critics who based on they kept excessively overmuch of nan worth for themselves.
An American spectacle
The relationship, mostly dormant and retired of nationalist view, moved to nan foreground during Trump’s 2016 statesmanlike campaign. White emerged arsenic 1 of nan candidate’s astir loyal surrogates, speaking astatine nan Republican nationalist normal and vouching for a nominee galore constitution Republicans still viewed pinch suspicion. He returned to nan normal shape successful 2020 and again successful 2024, becoming a fixture successful Trump’s governmental orbit.
As Trump’s power grew, truthful did White’s usefulness. The UFC’s assemblage progressively overlapped pinch a demographic some parties struggled to reach. When Trump sought appearances pinch Rogan, Theo Von and different podcast hosts during nan 2024 campaign, he was moving done a media beingness White had spent years helping legitimize, link and amplify done nan UFC.
During nan 2024 campaign, Trump credited White pinch helping facilitate nan Joe Rogan quality that became 1 of nan defining media moments of nan election. White occupied a position fewer governmental operatives could match.
That helps explicate nan value of White’s caller media blitz. In galore of nan interviews ostensibly promoting Sunday’s White House card, White spent arsenic overmuch clip discussing Trump, authorities and taste power arsenic he did nan fighters themselves. The displacement is revealing. Dana White is nary longer simply promoting fights. He occupies a uncommon position astatine nan intersection of entertainment, authorities and replacement media, helping link figures who progressively style really millions of Americans devour information. The UFC progressively functions arsenic a parallel run arena: a spot wherever Trump performs strength, bypasses accepted media and reaches voters who whitethorn ne'er watch a cablegram news broadcast.
Which brings america to Sunday night. The impermanent arena covering nan South Lawn resembles thing betwixt Close Encounters and a elephantine arcade claw machine. More than $60m has reportedly been spent transforming 1 of nan astir recognizable pieces of nationalist onshore successful nan United States into a venue for cage fighting. Viewed successful isolation, nan spectacle is easy to disregard arsenic different Trump-era curiosity.
But nan White House paper reaches acold beyond nan sports pages. It is nan culmination of respective trends that person been converging for decades: a quarter-century narration betwixt Trump and White, nan emergence of an replacement media ecosystem, a governmental confederation forged done communal use and a sports promotion that has grown into a $21.4bn empire following its merger pinch WWE. In that sense, nan White House’s semiquincentennial cage-fighting spectacular is not a departure from nan US but a reflection of nan caller normal: loud, gilded, hypermediated and intolerable to untether from politics.
The White House says nan UFC is covering nan costs of nan event, which is expected to costs much than $60m to shape while commanding nan resources of 7 national agencies. Yet nan disbursal is champion understood arsenic an finance successful a spectacle from which astir everyone progressive stands to benefit. The UFC gains unprecedented vulnerability while Trump gains a made-for-television ceremony that coincides pinch some nan 250th day and his milestone day – a spectacle it appears moreover nan G7 acme was consenting to set its schedule for.
On Sunday night, fighters will make their entrances from nan Oval Office to an octagon erected connected nan grounds of nan White House. They are scenes that would person been unthinkable moreover 5 years ago, but they are nan visible endpoint of a narration that helped reshape our caller world.
