WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the president and chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and asked the longtime fight promoter to bring a team of mixed martial arts fighters with him as assistants.
Trump announced the offer in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform. Reuters confirmed the post Saturday.
“I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States,” Trump wrote. “I have requested that he bring with him assistants, even though some are not from our Country, of Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Kayla Harris. We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left. Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!”
Trump’s post names “Kayla Harris”; the sixth fighter pictured in the graphic is Kayla Harrison, the two-time Olympic judo gold medalist who now fights in the UFC. Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are from Russia and Nunes is from Brazil, a point Trump noted in the post itself.
The press secretary’s job has been vacant since Oct. 16, when Katie Zacharia left after five days in the role — a tenure that included a pair of Fox News interviews and a single press briefing that lasted 15 minutes. Zacharia had succeeded Karoline Leavitt, who departed earlier this year.
White, 57, responded on Instagram Stories with the image of himself at the White House podium, captioned “On to the next chapter,” and shared a screenshot of Trump’s post. He has not said publicly whether he will accept the offer, and the White House has issued no formal announcement beyond the president’s post. It was not clear Saturday whether the offer was extended in jest.
White has no prior experience in government or political communications, but he is one of Trump’s closest allies in business. The UFC staged its Freedom 250 card on the White House South Lawn over the summer as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, and White House communications director Steven Cheung previously worked in a media role for the UFC before joining Trump.
The press secretary is the administration’s public face, conducting briefings and answering questions from reporters on the president’s behalf. Whether White — who built the UFC into a multibillion-dollar enterprise while running its press conferences himself — wants the job is expected to be the first question when he speaks to reporters next.
