Dana White defends Trump against racism claims, cites his ‘close friendship’ with Michael Jackson

WASHINGTON, DC: UFC boss Dana White pushed back against accusations that President Donald Trump is racist, pointing to the latter’s long relationship with one of the world’s most famous Black entertainers, Michael Jackson.

White made the comments during a May 22 podcast appearance with David Remnick, where a discussion about Trump quickly turned into a back-and-forth over Jackson.

Dana White defends Trump against racism claims

White argued that the labels often thrown at Trump don’t line up with the person he knows.

“These things that he’s a racist and he’s a N*zi and he’s this and that, I mean, Donald Trump, all this stuff’s coming out now,” White said.

“You know, the Michael movie just came out, and you see all these videos now popping up of Trump defending Michael Jackson and the type of person that he was and that Michael Jackson was around his children and around his family a lot.”

Remnick immediately pushed back and appeared stunned by the example.

“But wait a minute, Dana! Michael Jackson, as talented as he was, as brilliant as he was, was a deeply, deeply flawed human being, to say the least,” Remnick said. “And was abusive [from] everything we know about him.”

White agreed Jackson had flaws but questioned part of the claim. There was “no doubt” the “King of Pop” was flawed, White said, before asking, “He was abusive?”

“To kids, yes. It’s terrible,” Remnick replied, referring to the years of allegations against Jackson involving claims of abuse of multiple children, including accusations first made in 1993 and the criminal case that followed years later. However, Jackson was ultimately acquitted on all counts in 2005.

“I don’t know if that’s true, but I can tell you the president had a very good relationship with Michael Jackson and had Michael Jackson around his kids all the time,” White responded. “And you know, defended him when that stuff was going down. So to call the guy a racist is crazy. He’s not a racist.”

Dana White rejects criticism over Obama meme

Remnick suggested he didn’t want to stay on the topic much longer but asked White whether he got “the willies” from Trump posting a video earlier this year that depicted former President Barack Obama as an ape.

White didn’t budge. “If he was that type of person, I never would associate with that type of a person, no matter who he was,” White said.

Remnick followed up, “But if he does that, how is he not that kind of person?” “He’s not,” White answered.

Trump and Michael Jackson’s decades-long friendship

Trump and Michael Jackson shared a close friendship that dates back to the late 1980s and carried into the 1990s and early 2000s.

The two first connected around 1988 backstage at a Jackson concert at Madison Square Garden. One of their most public appearances came in April 1990 during the grand opening of Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, where Jackson performed and stayed in one of the property’s luxury suites.

Jackson also spent time living in Trump Tower in New York, renting an apartment there during certain periods. The two occasionally crossed paths within New York’s elite circles.

Over the years, Trump has repeatedly spoken warmly about Jackson and described him as both a friend and a singular talent.

“He was a very good friend of mine. He was an amazing guy, but beyond all else, he was the greatest entertainer I’ve ever known," Trump said in a tribute after Jackson died in 2009. "He had magic. He was a genius. He was also a really good person, and when you got to know him, you realized how smart he was. He was brilliant."