Trump publicly asks UFC boss Dana White to serve as White House press secretary
President Donald Trump asked Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana White to become White House press secretary in a social media post on Saturday afternoon, writing: "Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other," and "Dana, please take the job!" It is unclear whether the public offer is genuine, and the BBC has asked the White House and TKO Holdings, the parent company of UFC, for comment.
The request follows a string of recent developments in Washington and within the White House communications team: the press secretary vacancy has been open since mid-October after Katie Zacharia exited after just a few days, and Trump posted his message after his fellow Republicans lost their congressional majorities in the US midterm elections. The president described White as "a violent Fighter and Warrior" in the post and included photographs of six fighters alongside his comments.
In the same social media post Trump asked that White bring several high-profile UFC fighters to the White House staff "even though some are not from our Country," and added, "We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left." One of the fighters shown in the photographs was Islam Makhachev, identified in the report as a Russian.
Following Trump's message, Dana White uploaded an Instagram photo of himself standing behind the podium in the White House press briefing room and captioned it: "On to the next chapter," though the report notes it was unclear whether his post was tongue-in-cheek.
The article records a history of altercations between White and journalists: in 2020 he released a video targeting reporters who had questioned the UFC's decision to hold fights early in the pandemic, and in 2009 he issued an expletive-laden video tirade using an anti-gay slur while rebutting a journalist's story about changes to backstage credentialing rules at UFC events.
White's ties to Trump and to the growth of mixed martial arts are outlined in the piece: he is described as a longtime ally and friend of the president, and the report says White and his business partners bought the then-struggling UFC for $2m in 2001 while the sport faced intense bipartisan backlash. The article recalls that "just five years earlier, Republican Senator John McCain had famously labelled mixed martial arts 'human cockfighting', sparking bans in 36 US states."
Quoting White's remarks to CBS, the BBC's US partner, in 2025 the article cites his account of the early years: "None of the venues wanted [the UFC]," and "They didn't believe in it. They didn't like it, and they were worried about the type of crowd that would show up for this type of event." The piece also attributes to White the view that Trump helped the organisation by hosting two UFC events at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001, and notes that the UFC held a cage match on the White House lawn this summer and that White was a speaker at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
The White House press secretary role remains unfilled since mid-October when Katie Zacharia departed after a few days, and the BBC has sought comment from both the White House and TKO Holdings about whether Trump's public invitation to Dana White will lead to any formal appointment.