That's who Dana White is, Trump's old friend on the victory stage

She was at Trump's side twenty-five years ago, she was at the Republican Convention introducing Trump last July, she is on Tik Tok introducing Trump to the vast online audience at one of his events, she is on stage with Trump now that his old friend is returning to the White House after four years. Dana White, 54, takes the floor in West Palm Beach, Florida and says of The Donald's victory: 'Nobody deserves it more than he does, and nobody deserves it more than his family. This is what happens when the (media) machine chases you. He keeps going, he doesn't give up. He is the most resilient and hardworking man I have ever met in life. His family is made up of incredible people. This is karma, ladies and gentlemen, he deserves it, they deserve it as a family'. He then thanks youtubers and podcasters who supported his candidate during the campaign. In a photo released a few hours ago he talks to Trump and Musk on election night.

The ubiquitous White is the president of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), an organisation of mixed martial arts (acronym in English MMA), a sport that in twenty years has gone from being at risk of being banned for its brutality (Republican Senator John McCain launched a crusade against the UFC branding these fights as 'human cockfights') to becoming a thriving $11 billion business (Forbes estimate).

White, a former hotel bellhop, former boxing instructor then manager, Irish-born and university dropout before graduation, now a businessman with a $500 million fortune, is now being invoked by the online plaza as the next Press Secretary but beyond the role he might play in the second Trump administration there is no doubt about the influence he has had and the intermingling of his movement with the Trumpian electorate. "His base is Trump's base and Trump's base is his base," summarised Kellyanne Conway, former White House adviser to the first Trump administration. 'He was born in the perfect weather,' Mike Tyson, his close friend, said in an interview, recalls the New York Times. For White is an exponent of a certain America that in Trump has found its leader, in a middle ground between sport, business and culture where politics is not claimed but made.

When Trump was wounded in the ear in the shooting that made an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania last July, it was White, during the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, who celebrated the gesture of the stricken man getting up and ready to fight. "He's a tough guy, a real fighter, there are tough guys and those who are not. I recognise them when I see one." UFC athletes have often extolled conservative values and proclaimed themselves American patriots. A Trump-serving machine that has been cheering at ringside for at least twenty years.

The friendship has lasted since 2001: Dana White has always been there and followed Trump in his transition from business to politics. He was his guest at the Atlantic City casino and hotel Taj Mahal and in turn hosted Trump at his events with cage fights that glorify masculinity (although there are also female fighters). The next president of the United States has called him 'a special person, an exceptional businessman, a loyal friend'. Also a conduit to that young, uneducated white electorate that wears 'blue collar patriot' T-shirts mixed with MAGA (Make America Great Again, the tycoon's slogan and movement) caps at these sporting events.