Agent who inspired HBO's 'Entourage' is behind Trump's tough-guy image: MMA writer

The super agent who inspired HBO's "Entourage" is behind Trump's tough-guy image and UFC spectacle, according to an MMA writer.

Ari Emanuel, the brother of former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, is known as the basis for Jeremy Piven's character Ari Gold. Behind the scenes, he's also been bankrolling a yearslong effort to give Trump "macho cred," Nate Wilcox, who writes about Mixed Martial Arts and UFC, said in a recent interview.

According to Wilcox, Emanuel was Trump's agent, but he's also the chairman of TKO Group Holdings, the company that owns UFC. TKO is staging the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn.

UFC came under Emanuel's ownership in 2016, when Trump was running for president. UFC CEO Dana White also began appearing at Republican conventions around that time to introduce Trump, Wilcox said.

"It's believed by some analysts that the goal in 2016 was to give Donald Trump some macho cred, that he was better known to the viewers of "The View" than he was to fans of the UFC," Wilcox explained. "He was not seen as a macho guy, and then somehow paling around with meathead Dana White gave him that cred."

While White has touted his long-standing friendship with Trump, Wilcox said that his ties with Emanuel go further back. Even though Trump claims to have been to dozens of UFC events, Wilcox, who says he's been to every UFC event, said that Trump began attending UFC events in 2019.

"Dana White is a front man, he's an excellent front man," Wilcox said. "The people making the decisions are Ari Emanuel, and the reasons Ari Emanuel wants to be in with Trump are pretty clear."

According to Wilcox, Emanuel had "an enormous role in the Ellison family acquiring Paramount and WBD," referring to Warner Bros. Discovery, and Emanuel wanted to position himself as a Democratic insider in Hollywood.

Wilcox added that Piven's character in Entourage "seems to be a fairly accurate presentation of what Ari Emanuel is like, hard-charging."