Meta tapped longtime Trump ally Dana White to join its board of directors, furthering a company push to add Republican-aligned advisers that will likely to appeal to the incoming administration.
The company said Monday that White, a friend of President-elect Donald Trump and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, joined Meta’s board along with John Elkann, chief executive of the European investment company Exor; and Charlie Songhurst, a technology investor who served as head of global corporate strategy at Microsoft.
“Dana is the President and CEO of UFC, and he has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest growing, and most popular sports enterprises in the world,” Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Facebook. “I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”
White and Zuckerberg also share an interest in mixed martial arts, and White has consulted with the tech executive about using AI to change UFC rankings.
An early backer who stumped for Trump in his 2016 campaign, White was one of Trump’s most prominent allies in 2024, giving a fiery speech during the Republican National Convention. White played a key role in Trump’s campaign strategy, encouraging him to work with a new generation of online influencers who appealed to men under 35 — which some have attributed to a surge in support for Trump from young men.
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White’s addition to the board is one of several changes at the company designed to bolster its political position during the Trump administration. Last week, the company said Joel Kaplan would succeed Nick Clegg to become Meta’s chief global affairs officer.
Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the U.K., said he would spend the next “few months handing over the reins” before moving on to “new adventures.” Clegg has been the public face of the company’s public policy efforts, defending Meta’s approach to protecting elections, investing in virtual reality services and promoting its latest push to offer open-sourced AI models.
Kaplan, one of the company’s most senior Republicans, spent eight years in the George W. Bush White House and supported Trump’s Supreme Court pick Brett M. Kavanaugh. Kevin Martin, a former Republican-nominated chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is taking Kaplan’s place as vice president of global policy.
Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee, and Zuckerberg dined with the incoming president at Mar-a-Lago in November.
After years of criticism from Republicans, who have argued that Meta unfairly stifles conservative voices, Zuckerberg has offered more conciliatory rhetoric toward Trump. The CEO called Donald Trump a “bada–” in July after an assassination attempt, and said in a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that the Biden administration “repeatedly pressured” Meta to remove some Covid-related misinformation during the pandemic.