Meta adds UFC CEO and Trump supporter Dana White to its board of directors

UFC CEO Dana White joins Meta’s board of directors Announce today. Added mixed martial arts impresario dances with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg The UFC’s well-documented fan baseBut Meta also appears to be using the larger strategy heading into Trump’s second term: getting it right.

That’s not to say White’s seat on the board is typical. Most of Meta’s current board members work in the technology industry. The two members Meta is adding, alongside White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst, fit the usual bill for the social media company. White may say he’s a “strong believer that social media and AI are the future” in a Meta press release, but the company he keeps is probably the most important reason he’s joining now.

Dana White and President-elect Donald Trump We’ve been friends for years. White has supported Trump’s re-election campaign, and the UFC as a whole suits his tastes as a tough guy. Putting White on the board is as much about polishing Zuckerberg’s self-image as it is about gaining access to the incoming Trump administration. Maybe he’s the president-elect At some point I thought Zuckerberg should “spend the rest of his life in prison,” but the Meta CEO is doing everything in his power to bring him to justice.

Zuckerberg Visited Mar-a-Lago in November 2024 to have dinner with Trump, one of several tech CEOs to do so. Meta has also reshuffled its executive ranks to work better with a conservative government. The company’s former head of global affairs, Nick Clegg He announced that he would step down Just last week, he was replaced by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s most prominent Republican executive. Kaplan’s credits include eight years in the Bush administration. Zuckerberg has been in UFC mode for a while, and it appears that for at least the next four years, he will be dead as well.