During a recent appearance on Senator Ted Cruz’s podcast Verdict, UFC CEO Dana White spoke about his long history with UFC commentator and podcast host Joe Rogan. During the conversation, White talked about how Rogan came to work for the UFC, the rise of his podcast, his political evolution, and the role he played in getting Donald Trump on air.
White traced his relationship with Rogan back to the early days of UFC, when fans struggled to follow the ground game. “The greatest thing I did was bring Joe Rogan in,” White said. “He started walking people through what was happening while it was actually happening so that you would understand it.”
He recalled the moment Rogan first pitched him on the idea of a podcast. “Joe told me, ‘Hey, listen. I started a podcast. Would you come on my podcast?’ I was like, ‘What the h*ll is a podcast?’ He’s like, ‘Well, it’s like radio.'”
White admitted he did not immediately grasp what Rogan was building. “Rogan was definitely very insightful in starting his podcast, and then it just absolutely blew up and he became, you know, the biggest thing in the world.”
Asked why Rogan succeeds in the podcast space, White was straightforward. “He’s really good at, first of all, talking about a lot of interesting things. He’s very smart, obviously, and he’s great at speaking to people. He’s a good listener, asks great questions, and is always talking about interesting stuff with interesting people.”
White then continued: “And he tried so hard not to get into politics. He tried so hard not to get into politics.”
On the question of Rogan’s political shift, from Bernie Sanders supporter to Trump supporter to occasional Trump critic, White offered a plain answer.
He said: “He was very liberal. I mean, he was very liberal, and then when the world started to lose its mind, I mean, if you’re not a little right, you’re not right.”
White added that he shared a similar arc. “A lot of these guys who were liberal at one point, including me, I was too,” he said. When asked what changed his own views, White kept it short: “Common sense.”
White also described the role he played in getting Trump onto Rogan’s podcast. “I was the one pushing the president to do these podcasts.” He said Rogan agreed on one condition: “I’ll do it, but I’m gonna invite Kamala Harris to do it, too. I’m gonna invite both.”
He said Harris’s team responded to Rogan’s outreach with terms of their own. “Well, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re gonna have to fly to LA. We’ll give you 20 minutes and we need to know all the questions ahead of time.”
Rogan’s response, according to White, was equally clear: “That is not what I do.”
