Dana

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump said Saturday that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to his friend and UFC boss Dana White, an announcement unconventional even for the norm-busting president and one that nobody in the White House immediately confirmed.

Trump, while he was at his golf club in Florida, posted on social media that he made the offer to “the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior” to become the Republican president’s chief spokesperson.

Trump said he requested that White bring along several UFC fighters as “assistants,” adding, “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!”

The White House did not respond Saturday to messages inquiring about the president’s social media post.

White was in London on Saturday for a boxing event. A spokesperson for UFC did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The UFC head shared an image of Trump’s post on Instagram, along with an image of White standing behind the lectern in the White House press briefing room with the words “On to the next chapter.”

Trump’s post came as his White House is in a period of major transition and struggling with his party’s deep losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The historic wins by Democratic candidates, including in areas that Republicans had held for decades, led to the GOP losing control of both chambers of Congress.

Trump on Friday announced he was replacing his longtime advisor Susie Wiles, seen as something of a tempering force on the president’s impulses, as White House chief of staff. He replaced her with Stephen Miller, the chief advisor behind the administration’s hard-line immigration policies and among the most pugilistic of Trump’s inner circle.

The shake-up at the heart of his administration follows the brief but tumultuous week when Trump tried out a new press secretary in Katie Zacharia, who seemed uncomfortable in her sole appearance before reporters left the job after five days amid revelations she had called herself an attorney despite lacking legal credentials.

The post had been vacant since Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August. Trump remains without a chief spokesperson.

Trump is close friends with White and has attended several UFC events with him since returning to the White House in January 2025.

He brought White and the sport to the White House’s South Lawn in June for a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and the president’s 80th birthday. A wire-mesh octagon was constructed near the executive mansion under “The Claw,” a spaceship-like metal arch fitted with lights, sound equipment and large screens.

“It was an amazing experience. This was a one of one,” said White afterward.

White also spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Daniel Gelston in Philadelphia and Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

Dana White has credited Eddie Hearn for making sure the long-awaited fight between Tyson Fury and Antony Joshua will be held in the UK but insisted he was “bored” of their ongoing feud.

The heavyweight bout will take place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff – despite efforts to host it New York’s Madison Square Garden – on a bill that starts on 11 December, though they are not expected to fight until the early hours of 12 December.

White and Saudi Arabian organisers wanted the bout in the United States, but Joshua and his promoter Hearn refused to budge on their contractual right to have it in the UK.

“You’ve got to give credit to Eddie for really grinding that and making sure that it happened in the UK,” UFC president and Zuffa Boxing chief White told Steve Bunce on the 5 Live Boxing with Bunce podcast.

However, there had been doubts over the contest because of a dispute over the role of White in the promotion of the event.

The fight, which will be shown on Netflix, has been presented as a collaboration between Saudi boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh’s The Ring and White.

Hearn has been publicly feuding with White since the launch of Zuffa Boxing earlier this year and said his involvement in the fight “ain’t happening”.

But, Fury and Joshua held a news conference on 30 September, to ease concerns over their fight.