President Trump offers UFC chief Dana White press secretary position

President Donald Trump said Saturday, Nov. 7, that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to his longtime friend Dana White, the president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Hours later, CNN reported that White had declined, citing a source familiar with the matter. But White, speaking at a boxing news conference in London that evening, said he was flying to Washington and would meet with Trump on Monday. “I’m sure I’ll have more to talk about after that,” he said, according to NPR (Lean Left).

Trump announced the offer on Truth Social from his golf club in Florida. “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,” he wrote. He said he had asked White to bring six current or former UFC fighters as “assistants, even though some are not from our Country”: Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and “Kayla Harris,” which The Epoch Times (Right) and others said was likely a reference to Kayla Harrison. “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 wrote.

Is the offer serious?

Neither the White House nor White has said whether the offer is formal. White shared Trump’s post on Instagram along with an image of himself behind the briefing-room lectern captioned “On to the next chapter.” MS NOW (Left), NBC News (Lean Left) and The Guardian described the lectern image as what appeared to be AI-generated; an AFP report carried by Breitbart (Right) called it “possibly AI-generated.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung, who previously held a media role at UFC, reposted Trump’s message and wrote, “Hell yeah! Do it, @DanaWhite!” CNN (Lean Left) reported that one aide said Trump was joking. Asked whether the post was an “official joke,” a Trump adviser told a reporter, “That's for everyone to find out,” according to a post MS NOW embedded.

At the London news conference, held for a Zuffa Boxing event, White was asked how he would balance the job with his other roles. “I got a lot of jobs already,” he said with a laugh, Fox News (Right) reported. White did not directly address CNN’s report, and neither he nor the White House has publicly confirmed or denied it.

A vacant post after weeks of turnover

The press secretary job has been open since Katie Zacharia left in mid-October after five days in the role. Most outlets, including CBS News (Lean Left) and the New York Post (Lean Right), date her departure to Oct. 16. Zacharia had replaced Karoline Leavitt, who left in August saying she wanted to spend more time with her family. CNN reported that Leavitt joined Fox News as a contributor this month. Asked Oct. 23 about filling the job, Trump told reporters, “No, nothing much. We’re in no rush,” Fox News reported.

The offer came a day after Trump named Stephen Miller to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, and days after Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Trump told CBS News on Friday, “I’ll be doing maybe a few changes.” An hour before the White post, Trump wrote that he had ordered the Justice Department to investigate Democrats he accused of threatening officials and donors, The Epoch Times reported.

White’s ties to Trump

White and Trump’s friendship dates to 2001, when Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City hosted UFC events as the promotion was trying to establish itself. White spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and appeared with Trump on election night in 2024.

In June, the UFC staged its Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn on Trump’s 80th birthday. MS NOW reported the event “came under intense ethics scrutiny,” and HuffPost reported it lost millions for the company.

White has previously said he had no plans to enter politics. “I have no personal political aspirations,” he told Sports Business Journal in November 2024, as quoted by Fox News (Right). The job pays $195,000 a year, according to The Guardian (Lean Left), and MS NOW reported that White’s annual UFC salary is reportedly $20 million.

How outlets covered it

Outlets agreed on the core facts: Trump’s post, the fighters he named, and White’s Instagram reply. They differed mostly on emphasis. CNN, HuffPost (Left), CNBC (Lean Left) and The Daily Caller (Right) highlighted the anonymous-source report that White declined. The Daily Caller’s headline said White “Reportedly Declines” without mentioning White’s later statement that he would meet Trump Monday. NPR, Fox News, CBS News, The Epoch Times and The Post Millennial (Right) led with White’s plan to meet Trump.

Left-leaning outlets focused more on White’s qualifications and past controversies. HuffPost recalled a 2022 video showing White slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve party, for which he apologized. The Guardian noted reports that Nurmagomedov is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Right-leaning outlets more often stressed the friendship’s history and Cheung’s endorsement. CNBC noted that the official title is “White House press secretary,” not “Press Secretary of the United States,” as Trump wrote.

On social media

On X and Bluesky, a widely shared claim held that Trump had meant to offer the job to a different person: Dana W. White, whom posts described as a former Pentagon spokesperson. On X, the account @liquidtrading wrote, “JUST IN: Trump confused Dana W. White, a former Pentagon official, with UFC President Dana White after receiving a recommendation from an aide,” a post with more than 600 likes. None of the outlets covering this story reported such a mix-up, and the available evidence points the other way: Trump’s post called White “a violent Fighter and Warrior” and named UFC fighters, Cheung tagged the UFC executive’s account, and White said he would meet Trump. Other X users split over the offer itself, from user Mark Gottlieb calling it “trolling” to supporters backing White for the job. Some accounts also stated as settled fact that White turned the job down, though that rests on one anonymous source.

On Bluesky, the “wrong Dana White” claim was also widely shared. A post by the account Mrs. Betty Bowers saying Trump offered the job “to the *wrong* Dana White” drew more than 9,000 likes. User Jake Lahut pushed back, writing, “Trump was doing some deranged trolling. That’s it.”

What remains unclear

It is not known whether the offer is formal, whether White will accept, or what was said in the conversations CNN’s source described. White said he would meet Trump on Monday, Nov. 9. The White House and UFC did not respond to requests for comment from several outlets on Saturday.