During the first Trump administration, major companies and business leaders avoided anything that could be construed as coziness with the new president. This time around, as Trump prepares to re-enter the White House later this month, things couldn’t be more different. Among the latest examples: Facebook parent company Meta just added one of Trump’s closest allies, his longtime friend Dana White, to its board of directors. Which is quite the 180, considering that Facebook once banned Trump entirely from its family of apps.
Another intriguing fact here that’s worth pointing out: According to White, the UFC president and CEO, Meta proactively reached out to him about a board seat. “I’ve never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta’s board,” White said in a statement released on Monday. “I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level.”
White, who introduced Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention, has led the UFC since 2001 and, in the years since then, has turned it into a global powerhouse (check out our recap of a UFC event at the Las Vegas Sphere). Moreover, the brash and sometimes outspoken White is known for, among other things, his connections to political figures like Trump — making his involvement with Meta particularly noteworthy.
For anyone who’s not a member of The Resistance, you could look at this news and reckon that Meta stands to benefit from White’s leadership and experience in managing a large and high-profile organization like the UFC. To the more cynical realists among us, meanwhile, adding White to Meta’s board suggests a change in the way the company approaches governance and strategy. Don’t forget, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is also completely onboard the Trump train, with Zuck calling Trump’s immediate reaction to getting shot last summer “badass.”
Moreover, this sort of thing is in no way exclusive to Meta now. Amazon likewise keeps finding new ways to get in the new administration’s good graces — the latest being Prime Video’s release of a Melania Trump documentary. Both Meta and Amazon are also reportedly donating $1 million each to the upcoming Trump inauguration, while Trump has spent the last several weeks greeting a cavalcade of business executives at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. What a difference a second presidency makes.
