The UFC put Trump in the White House. Time to pay attention
The UFC used its cultural influence and platform to help propel Trump back into the White House. Here’s why their political clout deserves serious attention—and what it could mean for the future.
Welcome to Sports Politika, a media venture founded by investigative journalist and researcher Karim Zidan that strives to help you understand how sports and politics shape the world around us. Our mission is to offer an independent platform for accessible journalism that raises awareness and empowers understanding.
If you share this vision, please consider supporting us by joining our community and becoming a paid subscriber.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, midway through his victory speech at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump invited UFC President Dana White to join him onstage and share his perspective on Trump’s return to the political arena.
Dressed in his signature bullet-grey suit and open-collared black shirt, as if he were sitting cageside at a prizefight, White eagerly took the stage to celebrate his friend’s victory.
“This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” White said. “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, hardworking man I’ve ever met in my life.
“This is karma ladies and gentlemen. He deserves this.”
White concluded his bombastic speech by thanking major manosphere influencers who were instrumental in getting young men to vote for Trump, including the “mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.”
The one name Dana White conspicuously left out, despite its pivotal role in securing Trump’s victory, was the UFC. Over the past few years, Trump frequently attended UFC events, basking in the admiration of the young, predominantly male crowd. White campaigned vigorously for Trump, speaking at the Republican National Convention for the third time and appearing at rallies like the one in Madison Square Garden. UFC champions also joined the effort, traveling to battleground states to encourage key minority groups, including Arab Americans, to support Trump.
In truth, no other sports organization dedicated as much time or resources to Trump’s reelection as the UFC did. Trump knows this, which is why White was by his side throughout election night, including during a watch party at Mar-a-Lago, where they were pictured huddled with billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk also played a crucial role in Trump’s victory. He established a super PAC to support Trump’s reelection, contributing nearly $119 million to the campaign. Additionally, he hosted $1 million sweepstakes for registered voters in the key battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Between Musk’s support, White’s UFC platform, and Rogan’s grip on the Gen Z and millennial “bros,” Trump’s victory was all but inevitable. Exit polls from Tuesday’s election showed Trump leading by a 10-point margin among men. It was a phenomenon that many, including me, anticipated for months.
In the lead-up to the election, mainstream pundits dismissed the idea that the manosphere, a cagefighting organization, and a group of right-wing podcasts could influence the outcome. Critics argued that targeting young men was risky, assuming they wouldn’t show up at the polls. Turns out, they did.
Trump’s strategy was obvious. He avoided traditional media programs like 60 Minutes in favor of podcasts like WWE legend The Undertaker’s Six Feet Under. These appearances helped ingratiate him to young, disaffected male audiences, who resonated with his interest in combat sports and his genuine fandom.
I’ve been writing about this for years, but few took me seriously. Instead, they underestimated the political influence of the manosphere and the entities, like the UFC, that it reveres. Even the Harris campaign turned down a chance to appear on the world’s most popular podcast, The joe Rogan Experience, while Trump and his running mate JD Vance found the time to connect with Rogan’s audience.
Trump was even better at manipulating Arab American voters. The president elect sent a collection of UFC champions to Michigan to convert Arab American anger over Gaza into election support. Harris, meanwhile, ignored Arab American voters, instead doubling down on her support for Biden’s foreign policy approach. It was as though she wanted to lose their vote.
Unfortunately, all of this was entirely predictable. Over the past few months, my friend Elie Bleier and I have put countless painstaking hours into a three-part audio series about Trump and the UFC. We carefully laid out their shared history highlighting how the UFC evolved into a potent platform for the MAGA movement. We also detailed how the organization played a key role in rehabilitating Trump’s image after the January 6 insurrection, when he was cast out as a political pariah. It was all unfolding in plain sight, yet few took it seriously.
After eight years of reporting on Trump, his rising authoritarianism, and how he transformed the UFC into a powerful platform for his MAGA movement, I can’t say I was surprised by Tuesday’s outcome. The truth is, I expected it. What frustrates me is how many continue to ignore this reality because they can’t fathom a cagefighting organization wielding such political influence. If you’ve followed my work, you understand that sports and politics are inseparable. Sports serve as a microcosm of society, revealing its flaws and struggles in a contained space.
For Trump, this played out in the raucous applause he received at UFC events—and ultimately, it helped propel him to a popular vote victory in the 2024 election. And he made sure to thank his partner for a job well done.
“That is a piece of work,” joked Trump, of White, after he finished speaking on Wednesday morning. “No, he’s really an amazing guy.”
A note to readers: Trump’s strategic use of sports and entertainment as part of his campaign strategy is a central theme of Sports Politika’s three-part audio series, In The Red Corner. Listen to the entire series here.
Related Reading:
Sports Politika is a media platform dedicated to the intersection of sports, power and politics. If you like what you see, upgrade to a paid subscription ( or gift a subscription if you already have your own). We would appreciate if you could also like the post and let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Thanks! This is genuinely new information to me. I hadn't even heard of UFC.
Thank you Karim!
It’s chilling how effective it is. DUMB move by Harris not to go on JRE.