MMA analyst Luke Thomas made striking claims about the UFC’s role in Donald Trump’s political rehabilitation during a recent live chat episode. Thomas argued that the organization served as a crucial vehicle for Trump’s image repair following January 6, 2021, and played an instrumental role in his electoral success.
“The UFC was more instrumental in that role than virtually anything else,” Thomas stated when discussing Trump’s political comeback. He emphasized that the first public reception Trump attended after January 6 was a UFC event, where the organization “paraded him not just as a president, but as a candidate.”
According to Thomas, the relationship between Trump and the UFC represents clear political payback. “This is a reward. Trump is very good about rewarding people in his orbit. He is rewarding the UFC with this kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that basically no other sports league could ever possibly dream of getting.”
Thomas explained that the UFC was “massively influential” in helping Trump reach voters who don’t typically participate in elections or reliably vote Republican. Beyond voter outreach, he noted that “they helped rehabilitate his image to make him more of a friendly candidate following a fake elector scheme where he tried to steal a presidential election.”
The analyst pointed to concrete evidence of this relationship: “People who have worked at the UFC now work in the White House. That is a real thing that has happened as well.”
Thomas addressed critics who might dismiss the upcoming White House UFC event as merely Trump enjoying fights. “Please be a f**king adult,” he said. “It is political payback in a good way… It is a political reward for the role that the UFC played in rehabilitating Donald Trump.”
He detailed how the UFC utilized multiple fighters as political surrogates and provided Trump with repeated platforms during his campaign. Thomas also revealed insider information that “the guy the people in the education workforce committee kind of got a word from the White House that the legislation for the Ali Act was in fact a priority for them,” suggesting the administration may help the UFC with regulatory matters.
The analyst characterized the relationship as transactional: “They helped him get elected and now he’s going to reward them by changing the laws to help them entrench their boxing position as well as to give them this kind of grand scale event that you cannot pay to have. They either give it to you or they don’t.”
Thomas concluded by stating unequivocally: “Anyone else who tells you anything other than that just doesn’t know what they’re talking about or they’re lying.”
