'Dana, please take the job': Trump make surprise offer to UFC chief to become White House press secretary

US President Donald Trump has publicly asked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief Dana White to take up the role of White House press secretary in a social media post. "Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other," Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Dana, please take the job!” However, it remains unclear whether Trump's public offer was serious. Responding later on Saturday, White said: "I got a lot of jobs already."

The White House press secretary position has been vacant since mid-October, following Katie Zacharia's departure just days after taking up the role. Trump's Saturday afternoon post came after Republicans suffered major losses in the US midterm elections, losing their majorities in Congress. In his message, the president described White as a violent Fighter and Warrior and suggested that he bring several prominent UFC fighters along with him, even though some are not from our Country.

"We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left," Trump wrote, sharing photographs of six fighters. After Trump's post, White shared a photograph on Instagram showing himself standing behind the lectern in the White House press briefing room. "On to the next chapter," he wrote, although it was unclear whether the post was intended as a joke.

White House communications director Steven Cheung also appeared to support the proposal, posting "Hell yeah! Do it, @DanaWhite!" on X while sharing Trump's message.

White was attending a fight in London on Saturday night between British former world champion Chris Billam-Smith and Jamaican-born British fighter Cheavon Clarke at the Copper Box Arena. During a news conference after the event, White was asked about Trump's offer. He said he would be travelling to Washington on Monday for a meeting with the president. "I'm sure we'll have something to talk about after that," he said, without clarifying whether he would consider taking on one of the most demanding positions in American politics.

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CNN, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that White had declined the idea. As he indicated during the news conference, White already has several major professional commitments. Alongside overseeing the UFC and Power Slap, a regulated slap-fighting promotion league, he has recently launched Zuffa Boxing, a professional boxing promotion company.

Last year, he was also announced as one of three new board members of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Known for his confrontational personality, White has occasionally clashed with journalists covering the sport during news conferences. In 2020, he released a video criticising reporters who questioned the UFC's decision to continue organising fights during the pandemic. In 2009, he also published a video filled with profanity in which he used an anti-gay slur while responding to a journalist's report about changes to backstage credential rules at UFC events.

Dana White's long-standing relationship with Trump

White has been a longtime ally and friend of Donald Trump. In 2001, White and his business partners purchased the struggling UFC organisation for $2 million, at a time when the future of mixed martial arts in the United States remained uncertain. Five years earlier, Republican Senator John McCain had famously described the sport as human cockfighting, contributing to bans in 36 US states.

"None of the venues wanted [the UFC]," White said in 2025. “They didn't believe in it. They didn't like it, and they were worried about the type of crowd that would show up for this type of event.” With major venues refusing to host UFC events, White has credited Trump with helping save the organisation by hosting two fights at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001.

White subsequently became a speaker at Trump's White House campaigns during the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024. This summer, the UFC also organised a cage fight on the White House lawn.