The Macho convention: Republicans appeal to men with prime speaking slot for UFC's Dana White

WASHINGTON – Donning his signature navy blue suit and red tie, former President Donald Trump was greeted by more than 17,000 raucous fans in Newark, N.J. at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on June 1, just one day after he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Walking through the crowd of mostly grown men and young boys, many were screaming, recording and scrambling to shake the former president’s hand as he strutted toward the ring.

Young men are one of the top demographics Trump and Republicans want to appeal to this week as the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee gets underway, as showcased by the just-released list of speakers at the convention.

One notable name on that list is UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump who spoke at the 2016 Republican convention and had a recorded message at the 2020 convention. He is reportedly slated to introduce the former president on Thursday.

Republicans have long held leads among men in presidential elections, and the party wants to continue to make strides with young men – who are shown to have more conservative views on gender equality – throughout the election.

Polling shows there is a gender-divide among voters who support Democrats and those who support Republicans.

President Joe Biden leads in support among women by roughly 8 percentage points, according to an analysis from the New York Times published last month. Trump, on the other hand, holds a double-digit lead among men, the analysis found.

While Gen Z and Millennials are often held as more progressive, men in those demographics are found to be less supportive of gender equality.

According to an Ipsos poll published in March, 60% of Gen Z men believe that promoting women’s equality has gone so far that it discriminates against men, compared to 40% of Gen Z women who believe that.

“There's a new gender gap in American politics: Biden's problem with men,” former Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, wrote on X, along with a link to the Times analysis.

Dana White video recirculates of him slapping his wife

Young conservatives are praising the RNC’s decision to include speakers like UFC’s White.

Alt-right conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter Jack Posobiec on Saturday lauded the RNC as “becoming a people’s convention,” and praising White for being included despite the “hypermasculine sport” MMA initially being rejected by “the establishment.”

But a video of White slapping his wife, Anne, on New Year’s Eve in 2023 quickly began recirculating on the internet by Democrats who were critical over his inclusion of the convention.

The video, made public by TMZ, showed White slapping Anne in the face while they vacation in Mexico. His wife initially slapped him in the face after he tried to grab her wrist while she was walking away.

At the time, White said there “are no excuses for it.”

“It’s something I’m going to have to deal with and live with for the rest of my life,” he said at a press conference last year.

“Unbelievably, Team Trump is boasting of their machismo, per Axios, by having Trump intro’d at convention by UFC’s Dana White seen here slapping his wife,” former Rep. Barbara Comstock, D-Va., wrote on X.

Tucker Carlson, UNC frat boys to also speak

Several other male conservative darlings and rising-stars will be featured at the week-long event, some of which highlight Republicans’ continued efforts to target men in the election.

Tucker Calson, the former Fox News host who criticized Trump in text messages later revealed publicly, but is now on friendly terms with the former president, will speak at the convention.

The organizers of the convention aren’t just highlighting longtime conservatives, but are making an effort to include more “everyday Americans” as part of the programming.

A group of fraternity members from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who went viral in May after holding up an American flag during a pro-Palestine protest, are among two-dozen people or groups who will be part of the “Everyday American Convention."

An announcement from Trump’s campaign said the students "gained national attention as videos of the protest showed them standing strong to protect the American flag, even as protestors antagonized them.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, GOP make appeal to men voters at macho RNC