UFC president Dana White introduced Donald Trump’s keynote speech with a tribute to his longtime friend as “the toughest, most resilient human being,” while holding back his emotion.
After White agreed to speak just before Trump, the former president texted him to thank him and apologize for having to leave early due to a family trip.
“Think of it as the biggest fight you’ve ever had. A fight for our country and even for the world. I just hope you don’t have to cut your family trip short, but I hope you understand and love them and know how important this is,” Trump had said, according to White.
“This man is running for president of the United States, he’s fighting for the future of this country, and he’s worried about disrupting my family trip,” White said.
UFC president Dana White introduced Donald Trump’s keynote speech with a tribute to his longtime friend as “the toughest, most resilient human being,” and grew emotional.
“This man is running for president of the United States. He’s fighting for the future of this country. He’s worried about disrupting my family’s trip. That’s the President Trump I know. A man who truly cares about people,” she continued.
‘The mainstream media likes to spread the idea that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, but I know that’s not the case because I’ve been friends with this guy for 25 years.’
“This man is the toughest, most resilient human being I have ever met in my life,” she said through tears in an emotional tribute.
“How great was Dana?” Trump said in his own speech. “It was probably the only time she ever took a vacation in her life.” The former president said White had promised his wife the vacation for “many years,” but his wife told him “you can’t turn him down.”
The friendship between White and Trump dates back decades, after Trump welcomed the UFC to his now-defunct “Trump Taj Mahal” in New Jersey amid a campaign to ban the sport that the late Sen. John McCain once called “human cockfighting.”
“This record was so bad that even the venues didn’t want us. The stadiums didn’t want us,” White said in 2022.
But when New Jersey legalized the sport in 2000, “Trump literally called us. He said, ‘Come to my house, do the event here. We’ll invite you to the Trump Taj Mahal.'”
Not without controversy, last year White apologized for slapping his wife after the encounter was caught on video.
“This man is running for president of the United States, he’s fighting for the future of this country, and he’s worried about disrupting my family’s trip,” White said.
“This man is the toughest, most resilient human being I’ve ever met in my life,” White said before Trump took the stage.
White, 55, whose estimated net worth is $500 million after building the UFC into a lucrative global franchise, has been married to his wife for 27 years, since 1996, and they have three children together.
They were celebrating New Year’s Eve at El Squid Roe in Cabo San Lucas. The video shows White apparently saying something to Anne, who reacts by slapping him. He then slaps her back before the couple separates.
The UFC boss said: “My wife and I went out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, that’s what happened.”
‘I’m one of those people who says there’s never, ever an excuse for a man to put his hands on a woman and now here I am on TMZ talking about it.
‘This is one of those horrible situations. I’m ashamed. We have three children and since the video came out, we have shown the children and now we are more focused on our family.