Donald Trump just turned a routine White House staffing question into one of the most talked-about moments of the week.
On Saturday, the president posted on Truth Social and urged UFC president and CEO Dana White to take the job as White House press secretary — and he did it in front of the entire internet.
“Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other,” Trump wrote. “Dana, please take the job!”
It is still not clear whether Trump was making a serious offer or simply having fun with one of his oldest friends. The White House and TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of the UFC, have not publicly confirmed whether any real talks are happening.
The press secretary job is still open
The timing caught people’s attention. The position has been vacant since mid-October, when Katie Zacharia stepped down after only a few days in the role.
Trump’s post also came shortly after Republicans suffered major losses in the U.S. midterm elections, losing control of Congress.
So when the president suddenly floated Dana White’s name, it quickly became more than a random social media comment.
“Bring the fighters with you”
Trump did not stop at asking Dana White to take the job.
In the same post, he called White “a violent Fighter and Warrior” and suggested he should bring several high-profile UFC fighters to the White House briefing room with him — “even though some are not from our Country.”
“We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” Trump wrote, alongside photos of six fighters.
One of those fighters was Russian star Islam Makhachev, a detail that quickly caught attention online.
Soon after Trump’s message, Dana White posted a photo of himself standing behind the White House press briefing room podium with the caption:
“On to the next chapter.”
Was it a serious hint, or just Dana White joking back? Nobody outside Trump’s circle seems to know yet.
Dana White and Trump go way back
This would not be the first time Dana White has stood close to Trump in a major political moment.
White has spoken at the Republican National Convention in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and the two men have been friends for years.
Their relationship goes back much further than politics.
In 2001, the UFC was struggling badly. The sport was facing heavy backlash across the country, and many venues refused to host events. Senator John McCain had famously called mixed martial arts “human cockfighting,” and bans spread across dozens of states.
At the time, Dana White has said almost nobody wanted anything to do with the UFC.
Then Trump stepped in.
White has credited Trump with helping save the organization by allowing UFC events to be held at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City when few other arenas would take the risk.
That early support helped the UFC survive long enough to become the global sports empire it is today.
More recently, the promotion reached another historic moment when the UFC held a cage match on the White House lawn this past summer.
A media fighter, not a media favorite
If Dana White ever did take the job, he would not exactly be entering unfamiliar territory when it comes to confrontation.
White has a long history of clashing with reporters.
In 2009, he went on an expletive-filled rant that included an anti-gay slur while responding to a story about media credentials at UFC events.
In 2020, he released a video criticizing reporters who questioned the UFC’s decision to hold fights early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In other words, putting Dana White behind the White House briefing room podium would almost certainly guarantee one thing:
Press briefings would never be boring.
For now, there is no official confirmation that Dana White is being considered for the role. But Trump’s public message alone was enough to set off a wave of speculation across sports and politics.
And with Dana White posting from behind the White House podium just hours later, a lot of people are asking the same question:
Was Trump joking — or did he just float his most explosive press secretary idea yet?
