Dana White reveals what President Barack Obama said to him at 2025 inauguration

Dana White may be close personal friends with President Donald Trump but that doesn’t make him enemies with his political opposition.

Case in point, the UFC CEO revealed what was said when he spoke to ex-President Barack Obama when they were sat just feet away from each other at Trump’s second inauguration in January. On that day, White was an invited guest as Trump was sworn into office again, but he says his interaction with Obama was anything but confrontational.

“I am an American Citizen,” White told 60 Minutes on Sunday. “[Joe] Biden was my president. Trump is my president. I was at the inauguration, and I was sitting behind all the ex-presidents. There was this stuff going around ‘Dana’s mad dogging President Obama.’

“President Obama turned around, the only president that did, and shook my hand and said ‘congratulations on all your success.’ I said thank you very much, Mr. President. That’s what happened. I’ve never talked about that publicly.”

Of course, White maintains a very close relationship with Trump, who has become a fixture at many of the biggest UFC events where he typically makes a grand entrance in front of thousands of fans in attendance.

That long-term friendship also led to Trump announcing plans to hold a UFC event at the White House in 2026 as part of his plans to celebrate America’s 250th birthday.

White just recently revealed the artistic renderings he showed to the president to get his approval so the UFC could move forward with planning to stage the event around the July 4 holiday.

But just because White calls Trump a friend doesn’t mean he would ignore a call from somebody like Obama if he ever wanted to attend a UFC event on his own.

“If President Obama called and said ‘hey, I’d like to come see a fight,’ we’d be like ‘yeah, buy some tickets and good luck’ or whatever,” White said with a laugh. “No, the sitting president or an ex-President of the United States wants to come to your event, you treat them with respect.”

Given the size and stature of the UFC White House card, it’s safe to assume there’s going to be plenty of high-profile guests attending that event, but it remains to be seen if any former presidents make an appearance alongside Trump.