WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump, dressed in his trademark navy blue suit and red tie, was greeted by more than 17,000 enthusiastic fans at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Newark, New Jersey, on June 1, the day after Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
He walked through a crowd of mostly grown men and boys, many of whom shouted, recorded video or ran up to shake hands with the former president as he strode toward the ring.
As the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee this week, young men are one of the most popular demographics that President Trump and the Republican Party are hoping to appeal to, as evidenced by the growing list of names speaking at the convention.
One name to watch is UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and delivered a recorded message at the 2020 convention. He is reportedly set to introduce the former president on Thursday.
Republicans have long led among male voters in presidential elections, and the party is hoping to continue making gains among younger men, who are perceived to have more conservative views on gender equality, during the election.
Polls show a gender divide between Democratic and Republican voters.
A New York Times analysis published last month found that President Joe Biden has a roughly 8 percentage point lead among women, while President Trump holds a double-digit lead among men.
Gen Z and millennials are often seen as more progressive, but men from these generations have been found to be less supportive of gender equality.
An Ipsos poll released in March found that 60% of Gen Z men believe promoting women’s equality goes too far into discriminating against men, compared to 40% of Gen Z women.
“There’s a new gender gap in American politics: Biden’s men,” former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway wrote on X, linking to the Times analysis.
Video of Dana White slapping his wife goes viral
Young conservatives have praised the Republican National Committee’s decision to include speakers like UFC’s White.
Alt-right conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter Jack Posobiec on Saturday praised the Republican National Convention for “becoming the people’s convention” and praised White’s participation in mixed martial arts, a “hyper-masculine sport,” despite it initially being rejected by “the establishment.”
However, a video of White slapping his wife, Ann, on New Year’s Eve 2023 quickly began re-circulating online by Democrats critical of his participation in the convention.
A video shared by TMZ shows White slapping Anne in the face while on vacation in Mexico, after she initially slapped him in the face after he tried to grab her wrist as she tried to leave.
“There are no excuses,” White said at the time.
“This is something that I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life and live with,” he said at a press conference last year.
“Unbelievably, according to Axios, the Trump campaign is boasting about their manliness by showing UFC’s Dana White slapping his wife while introducing Trump at their convention,” former Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Virginia Democrat, wrote on X.
Tucker Carlson speaks to male students from the University of North Carolina
The week-long event is also set to feature several other conservative favorites and up-and-coming male candidates, some of whom will highlight the Republican Party’s ongoing efforts to target men in the election.
Tucker Carusone, a former Fox News host who criticized Trump in text messages later made public but is now friends with the former president, is scheduled to speak at the convention.
Convention organizers are seeking to include more “ordinary Americans” in the program, rather than just spotlighting longtime conservatives.
A group of sorority members from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who made headlines in May for flying American flags during a pro-Palestinian protest, are among two dozen people and groups taking part in the Everyday American Convention.
According to a statement from the Trump campaign, the students “gave national attention when videos from the protests showed them standing strong in defense of the American flag as protesters turned on them.”
