President Donald Trump asked Dana White, the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), to be his new press secretary on Saturday.
The president wrote in a Truth Social post announcing the news that he offered White the job to “defend us against the Lunatic Left,” adding that the sports executive will “be a Press Secretary like none other.”
“Dana, please take the job!” Trump wrote.
White has not appeared to formally accept the offer, but he cheekily responded on his Instagram account with a photoshopped image of him standing at the press secretary’s White House podium.
“On to the next chapter,” he wrote.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment, but CNN reported later Saturday citing sources that White ultimately declined the offer.
In a corresponding Instagram Story post, White shared a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social announcement, which featured images of famous UFC fighters below the sports executive appearing ready to fight for Trump.
“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 in full. He then named famous UFC athletes that he’d like White to bring with him to the White House with him, including two Russian fighters.
“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 and White have history, having maintained an apparently close personal and professional relationship dating back 25 years, when Trump hosted early UFC fights at his Atlantic City casino. As the president became one of the sport’s most prominent supporters, White emerged as a vocal political ally who endorsed Trump in 2016 and spoke at three Republican National Conventions.
Earlier this year, the UFC hosted a historic UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House’s South Lawn on June 14, 2026.
Trump’s offer for White to join his administration as press secretary came just weeks after the Oct. 16 ouster of Press Secretary Katie Zacharia, whose five-day tenure marked a record speed for a press secretary to exit the post after Trump’s first term saw Anthony Scaramucci fired after just 11 days in 2017.
