UFC President Dana White used Donald Trump’s longtime friendship with Michael Jackson as a defense against claims that the president holds racist or otherwise troubling views, during a conversation on The New Yorker Radio Hour.
Speaking with host David Remnick, White strongly rejected what he described as a false public narrative surrounding Trump’s character. The discussion became more pointed when Remnick brought up Trump’s social media behavior and some of his public rhetoric toward others.
White dismissed the accusations directly. “These things that he’s a racist and he’s a N*zi and he’s this and that,” White said.
He then referenced the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic and the renewed circulation of old footage involving Trump and Jackson.
“The Michael movie just came out,” White said, “and you see all these videos now popping up of Trump defending Michael Jackson and the type of person that he was. And that Michael Jackson was around his children and around his family a lot.”
Remnick immediately challenged the comparison, calling Jackson “a deeply, deeply flawed human being, to say the least,” while also bringing up the abuse allegations involving children.
White pushed back on that as well. “I don’t know if that’s true,” he said.
White then returned to Trump’s relationship with Jackson, arguing that it reflected positively on Trump’s character.
“But I can tell you that the president had a very good relationship with Michael Jackson,” White said. “He had Michael Jackson around his kids all the time and, you know, defended him when that stuff was going down.”
For White, Trump’s willingness to publicly stand by Jackson and welcome him around his family serves as evidence that the public image attached to Trump does not align with the man he personally knows.
White and Trump’s relationship dates back to 2001, when Trump, then owner of the Atlantic City Taj Mahal casino, allowed the UFC to hold events at the venue during a period when many arenas refused to work with the promotion.
Over the years, White has repeatedly described Trump as one of the UFC’s earliest supporters, saying he regularly attended fight cards and personally congratulated the company whenever it reached major milestones.
That history continues to shape White’s reaction to criticism directed at Trump. “The narrative that they put out there about him and who he is as a person is gross,” White said, later adding that it was “positively not true.”
Remnick responded by questioning whether Trump’s reputation was really created by media narratives or by Trump’s own public comments and social media posts.
He added that if Trump were truly the kind of person critics describe him as, “I would never associate with that type of person, no matter who he was or who he thinks he is.”
