President Donald Trump said Sunday he was joking when he announced on social media that he had offered UFC boss Dana White the White House press secretary job and lined up a roster of fighters to serve as his assistants.<\/p>\n
“I will tell you, I was only kidding,” Trump said when asked what prompted the pitch and whether he was serious.<\/p>\n
Trump pointed to the fighters he had named as White\u2019s would-be assistants, saying the lineup should have given the joke away. “And you see a lot of rough faces there,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also joked that some of the fighters came from “parts unknown.”<\/p>\n
DANA WHITE DENIES AMERICA 250 UFC FIGHT AT WHITE HOUSE WILL BE ‘POLITICAL,’ ‘NOT AT ALL’ ABOUT POLITICS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Trump said he thought White liked the idea and called him “a very capable guy.” As for how the UFC boss might handle the job, Trump said, “You wouldn\u2019t mess around with him so much.”<\/p>\n “But Dana is actually coming tomorrow,” Trump said. He explained that the visit was for other reasons, saying he believed White already planned to be in Washington and would stop by to see him.<\/p>\n TRUMP’S NEW PRESS SECRETARY OUT OF THE JOB JUST DAYS AFTER ROCKY DEBUT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Trump said some people took to the idea after he floated it. “And then people said, you know, that\u2019s actually a pretty good idea,” he said.<\/p>\n The clarification came a day after Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had offered White the job<\/a>. His post named UFC stars including Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes as prospective assistants.<\/p>\n UFC STARS VISIT OVAL OFFICE, THANK PRESIDENT TRUMP FOR TRANSFORMING THE SPORT WITH HISTORIC WHITE HOUSE FIGHT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “Dana, please take the job!” Trump wrote.<\/p>\n White shared Trump\u2019s post<\/a> on his Instagram Story, along with a photo of himself behind the White House podium. He captioned the photo, “On to the next chapter.”<\/p>\n LEAVITT OPENS UP ON HELPING TRUMP FIND NEW PRESS SECRETARY AFTER ZACHARIA DEBACLE: ‘WAS NOT FOR HER’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The exchange came weeks after Katie Zacharia\u2019s departure as press secretary<\/a>. Zacharia had been tapped to succeed Karoline Leavitt, who left in August. Asked Oct. 23 about finding a replacement, Trump told reporters, “We\u2019re in no rush.”<\/p>\n Trump and White have known each other for decades, dating back to the UFC\u2019s early years, when Trump hosted fights at his Atlantic City property. White introduced Trump at the 2024 Republican National Convention and joined him on the White House South Lawn in June for UFC Freedom 250.<\/p>\n KAROLINE LEAVITT REVEALS SHE\u2019S ADVISED TRUMP ON WHITE HOUSE REPLACEMENT IN FINAL INTERVIEW AS PRESS SECRETARY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n White previously told Sports Business Journal in November 2024 that he had “no personal political aspirations” when asked about a possible role in Trump\u2019s incoming administration.<\/p>\n Outkick’s Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Donald Trump said Sunday he was joking when he announced on social media that he had offered UFC boss Dana White the White House press secretary job and lined up a roster of fighters to serve as his assistants. “I will tell you, I was only kidding,” Trump said when asked what prompted the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}