Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a combat promoter. That is, the old-looking “all advertising is good advertising” usually applies.
But in a simple greeting, President Trump's favorable allies may have extended the proverb to its limits.
On the other side of White's handshake and embrace at Friday's powers slap event in Las Vegas were controversial internet personalities Andrew and Tristantate, who recently left Romania. The travel ban was lifted later last month.
In a widely shared video of her interaction with Tates, White can be heard saying, “Welcome to America, Welcome to the Boys.”
The next night, when Tates attended UFC 313, it was another incident at White's event.
White has built billions of dollars of business safety for someone who says outrageous, sometimes naughty things. A wise cultural figure, he helped define the new, masculine American mainstream where major brands, right-wing YouTubers and celebrities mix freely.
But welcoming the Tate brothers has long been considered a misogynistic outlier of the so-called Manosphere and accused of crimes against women – White opened his tent to the extent that even the prominent internet commentators Trump expressed shock.
“I ended up with @UFC,” conservative influencer John Cardillo wrote to X:
Misfit Patriot, an X-account that supports Trump, posted a video of Tate, who is married to his 16-year-old child and has sex with him, saying, “Hey. @Danawhite, this is the guy who just rocked last night.”
Representatives for Tates and White did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Tate brothers who claim they are innocent are not out of legal danger. Florida Attorney General James Usmier announced last week that his office had launched a “preliminary investigation” of his brothers who have double citizenship in the US and the UK.
“Florida has zero resistance to human trafficking and violence against women,” Usmeyer said. “If any of these suspicious crimes cause a Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable.”
But this hasn't stopped the brothers who repeatedly laughed at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on social media and repeatedly laughed at the spotlight. Since their arrival in the US, they have appeared on the popular Full Send Podcast hosted by Mr. White's close ally Kyle Fortead of the Nerk Boys. Like the podcasts supporting Patrick Bett David, Keith and Kevin Hodge Trump.
These appearances highlight the cracks within the conservative media ecosystem, while generating a lot of attention and support from Tate fans. Notable figures like Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro spoke to Taites, who draws a lot of criticism from religious groups and various factions in the conservative world.
“How conservatives and conservative organisations respond to Andrew Tate as they arrive in US soil will tell you everything you need to know about them,” wrote Jeremy Boreing, CEO of The Daily Wire, in X last month. “The organizations and hosts that accept him, that's it, but much worse than simple glyft. Andrew Tate is the enemy of traditional American conservatism.”
Trump partially won last November by adding a younger man to his coalition. Many cultural observers believed that Mr. White helped bring. But White had his own controversy — in 2023 he slapped his wife on a holiday in Mexico, saying, “There's no excuse” — and the cultural sensibility of a man like him is pleasing and outrageously popular is at odds with more traditional, conservative groups.
Now, by greeting Tate, who provided a programme that teaches women how to groom women for sex work, she may have highlighted the cracks within parts of the Trump Union.
