Meta adds UFC president Dana White to board as it seeks influence with Trump
Share:
Meta has courted incoming Trump administration since election with donation, visit, and praise. Meta announced on Monday that Ultimate Fighting Championship president and Trump ally Dana White will join its board of directors, as the tech giant seeks to build its relationship with the incoming administration.
![[Mark Zuckerberg and Meta have made attempts in recent months to forge closer bonds with Trump, after years of rocky relationship]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/24/00/25-4cf5a425d5614b6081ac45b9b74764be.jpg)
Though the pair are both successful media executives with an interest in martial arts, the move is widely seen as a larger attempt to align with the incoming administration. Last week, the company announced that Joel Kaplan, one of the most senior Republican officials at the firm, would become Meta’s chief global affairs minister, with a Republican-appointed former Federal Communications Commission chair ascending to another key post.
Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November. During the campaign, Zuckberg called Trump a “badass” for standing back up immediately after being shot by a would-be assassin at a rally in Pennsylvania in July. Trump and Zuckerberg have had a complicated relationship.
Facebook was a key platform the 2016 Trump campaign used to reach voters, though by 2021 the alliance had soured, as the social media giant indefinitely suspended the president’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram after he praised supporters who carried out the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
By 2023, Facebook reinstated Trump’s account. Major tech companies like Meta, Uber, Amazon, and Apple have made serious overtures to the incoming administration, with executives dining with Trump at a Mar-a-Lago and lavishing his inauguration committee with a record-breaking fundraising haul.
