Trump asks UFC chief Dana White to be White House press secretary

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief executive Dana White has said he will meet with Donald Trump after the US president offered him the job of White House press secretary.

Speaking at a new conference after a boxing event in London on Saturday, White said he would meet with Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss the president’s offer.

“Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier on Saturday. “Dana, please take the job!”

Trump also requested that White “bring with him assistants, even though some are not from our Country”.

Trump listed and posted pictures of six current and former UFC title holders to join White: Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov from Russia’s Dagestan region; Americans Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier and “Kayla Harris”, likely a reference to Kayla Harrison; and Amanda Nunes, a Brazilian who became a US citizen last year.

“We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” Trump wrote.

The White House press secretary role has been vacant since Katie Zacharia’s tenure ended ‌last ⁠month after just five days.

Zacharia succeeded Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down from the role at the end of August.

White and Trump first worked together in the early 2000s, but they grew closer since ⁠the UFC chief publicly backed Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.

In recent years, Trump has attended several UFC events, and in June, the White House hosted a night of UFC fights as ⁠part of celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.

The White House press office already has a former UFC spokesperson among its ranks: Director of Communications ⁠Steven Cheung, who worked for White’s organisation from 2013 to 2016.

Cheung shared the president’s message on X and said, “Hell yeah! Do it, @DanaWhite! It’ll just be like old times!”