In a series of contradictory public remarks over a 24-hour span, US President Donald Trump clarified to assembled reporters on Sunday that his widely shared Saturday announcement on his Truth Social platform offering Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White the vacant White House Press Secretary position was not a formal job offer, but a lighthearted, offhand joke.
The bizarre chain of events kicked off Saturday morning, when Trump posted to his 80+ million Truth Social followers that he was “pleased to announce” White had been extended the official press secretary role, adding that he had encouraged White to bring a cohort of active and retired mixed martial arts fighters on board as his core team of assistants. The post went on to argue that these high-profile combat sports personalities would be uniquely equipped to “defend us against the Lunatic Left,” before closing with a playful plea for White to accept the position. The president even went as far as to claim in the post that “Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other.”
Shortly after the post went viral, White addressed reporters at a scheduled public appearance, confirming he already had a pre-planned Monday meeting with the president on his calendar, but refused to confirm or deny if he was considering accepting the press secretary post. The UFC head noted he already oversees a sprawling portfolio of professional ventures: in addition to leading the global MMA powerhouse UFC, he runs PowerSlap, a regulated professional slap-fighting league, recently launched Zuffa Boxing as a new combat sports promotion, and serves as a formal board member at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. White has also been a vocal, high-profile Trump ally for nearly a decade, speaking at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024, joining the president on stage for his 2024 election victory speech, and overseeing a special UFC cage match event hosted on the White House lawn earlier this summer.
By Sunday, however, Trump walked back the entire public job announcement, telling reporters that White’s upcoming Monday trip to Washington was scheduled for unrelated, pre-existing commitments, and that the entire press secretary offer had been nothing more than a casual joke. “I will tell you, I was only kidding. But Dana loves the idea. And there’s only one Dana. He’s great,” Trump told the press pack, before reaffirming “it was just a little fun.”
The vacant press secretary position has been unfilled since early October, when Katie Zacharia resigned from the role after serving for less than five full days. Zacharia had stepped into the role as a last-minute replacement for Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House Press Secretary in US history, who had held the post from the very first day of Trump’s second presidential term. The unorthodox public job trial balloon came just days after the Republican Party suffered a decisive defeat in the 2025 midterm elections, losing its narrow majority in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate, a result that has put significant new pressure on the Trump administration to restructure its communications strategy.