UFC Insider Calls BS on Trump’s Glory Grab

Politics admin June 14, 2026 0 Comments

A former executive at Dana White’s UFC is accusing him of fabricating his story that Donald Trump saved the organization.

White has for years claimed that Trump single-handedly saved the UFC in 2001 when the mixed martial arts group, facing severe public backlash and financial turmoil in the early 2000s, held an event in Trump’s former Atlantic City, New Jersey property, the Trump Taj Mahal.

But former executives from that era say Trump had nothing to do with the event.

Former UFC Vice President of Production James Werme told Vanity Fair that Trump “wasn’t in the building, and I know that because I was there.”

“Have you ever seen a picture or video clip of Trump at the shows at Taj Mahal?” he added. “If it existed, you would have seen it a million times.”

White, who insists he’s not political despite appearing at several MAGA rallies, spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention during which he claimed that mainstream arenas had entirely banned the UFC, after the late Sen. John McCain dubbed it “human cockfighting.” He has maintained that it was Trump who offered his Atlantic City hotel as a venue when the company was in financial distress.

But Werme has said that Trump actually had no involvement in the Atlantic City event.

“In all the meetings with the Taj Mahal hotel, arena, casino,” Werme said. “I never met, saw, or spoke with Donald Trump. He had no involvement nor did he attend.”

Werme has also said that the Trump Taj Mahal, which declared bankruptcy several times and permanently closed in 2016, had actually been used as a venue previously. Semaphore Entertainment Group, UFC’s previous owner, had booked the venue for a 2000 event. He noted that the February 2001 show was even booked before White took over the organization.

Trump has seemingly bought into White’s telling, declaring in the Oval Office earlier this year, “They couldn’t get any arenas because it was so violent. I was able to give them the first four or five fights.”

But other executives, in addition to Werme, have also broken their silence on White’s account.

“Former head of UFC PR here,” Ant Evans wrote on X last month. “Trump’s name didn’t appear in a single press release, one-sheet briefing, talking point, UFC-produced document, book, or piece of content before 2016 … [White’s] narrative is simply false.”

The accusations come as White is set to host the “UFC Freedom 250” fight on Sunday, which just so happens to be Trump’s 80th birthday. The brawl is a part of the MAGA-ified America 250 celebrations.

An octagon has been built on the White House grounds, and the makeshift venue is expected to be able to hold 4,500 guests, far lower than Trump’s wish for it to hold 20,000 spectators.

White, whose company is expected to take a $30 million hit for hosting the fight, has said the spectacle will be “the greatest fight card ever assembled in the history of, at least, definitely this company.”