UFC CEO Dana White sat down on a podcast with Briana Chickenfry for a conversation that touched on the UFC’s early struggles, the White House card, and his close friendship with President Trump. White made a striking claim about the president’s ability to win over even his harshest critics in a one-on-one setting.
“I take you to dinner with President Trump for an hour. It is impossible for you to get up from that dinner and walk away and go, I hate that guy,” White said. “It’s impossible. I’ve done it.”
White backed up the claim with a story involving musician Kid Rock, who arranged a dinner with commentator Bill Maher and the president. Kid Rock asked White to join for support, and White cleared it with Trump first.
“I called the president and I said, Hey, Kid Rock wants me to come to this dinner. You cool? I’m not just going to show up at dinner,” White recalled. Trump agreed.
According to White, Maher arrived dressed formally, joking that he wasn’t going to show up underdressed, and the two men spent over an hour talking through their disagreements.
“They agreed, disagreed, but they talked,” White said, noting that Maher, a longtime Democrat, had never toured the White House before that night. White said Trump gave him a full tour. White added that when Maher discussed the dinner on his HBO show afterward, “the man I have hated for 30 years was not present at that dinner.”
White was careful to frame the relationship in personal rather than political terms.
“He is a good man. His family are good people. And he’s never been anything but an incredible friend to me,” White said. “You might not like his style. You might not like his approach. You might not like his politics, but he’s not a bad human.”
