Image source: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump offered the president of the UFC mixed martial arts championship, Dana White, to become White House spokesman, in a post on social media.
“Dana will be an unparalleled spokesman,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform. "Dana, please accept this position," he added.
It remains unclear whether Trump's public bid for the job was serious, though White said later on Saturday: "I already have a lot of jobs."
The position of White House Press Secretary has been vacant since mid-October, when Katie Zakaria left after only a few days in the position.
Image source: EPA
Trump's post comes after his fellow Republicans suffered a major defeat in the US midterm elections, and lost their majority in Congress.
In his post on Saturday, Trump described White as a “fierce fighter and warrior,” and asked him to bring with him a number of prominent UFC fighters to work with him, even if “some of them are not from our country.”
“We need these people to defend us against the crazy left,” Trump wrote, attaching photos of six fighters to the post.
Following Trump's post, White posted a photo of himself on Instagram standing behind the podium in the White House press briefing room.
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White commented on his photo by saying: “On to the next chapter,” although it was not clear whether the post had a sarcastic nature.
"Yes, absolutely! Do it, Dana White!" White House Communications Director Stephen Cheung wrote on X, while sharing the president's message.
White was sitting at ringside in a fight held in London on Saturday evening between former British world champion Chris Pellam-Smith and Jamaican-born Briton Chevon Clarke at the Copper Box Arena.
When asked about Trump's offer during a press conference following the fight, White said he would go to Washington to meet with Trump on Monday.
"I'm sure we'll have something to talk about after that," he added, without clarifying whether he was interested in taking on one of the most stressful jobs in the political arena.
CNN quoted a source as saying that White rejected the idea.
He also indicated during the press conference that he has a number of time-consuming commitments.
In addition to leading the UFC and PowerSlap, an association that organizes face-slamming competitions, he recently launched Zova Boxing, a professional boxing competition promotion company.
Last year, he was announced as one of three new members of the board of directors of Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Image source: AFP via Getty Images
White was known for his confrontational style, and at various times got into confrontations with journalists covering the sport during press conferences.
In 2020, he published a clip in which he attacked journalists who questioned the UFC’s decision to hold fights during the Corona pandemic.
In 2009, he published another clip filled with profanity, in which he used homophobic verbal abuse while responding to a press report about changes in the rules for granting backstage passes during UFC events.
White is a long-time ally and friend of Trump.
When White and his business partners bought the then-faltering UFC for $2 million in 2001, the sport was facing a bipartisan political backlash.
Just five years earlier, Republican Senator John McCain had described mixed martial arts as "human cockfighting," which led to a ban in 36 US states.
“None of the halls wanted to host 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 audience that might attend such events.”
With the main halls refusing to host their fights, White credits Trump with saving the organization, after he hosted two UFC fights at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001.
This summer, the UFC organized a cage fight on the White House lawn.
White became a spokesman for Trump's presidential campaigns during the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
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