US President Donald Trump has asked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) boss Dana White to be White House press secretary, in a social media post.
“Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Dana, please take the job!”
The BBC has asked the White House and TKO Holdings, the parent company of UFC, for comment. The vacancy for White House press secretary has been open since mid-October, when Katie Zacharia exited after just a few days on the job.
Trump’s post comes after his fellow Republicans were routed in the US midterm elections, losing their congressional majorities.
In his announcement, Trump called the UFC boss “a violent Fighter and Warrior” and asked that White bring a number of high-profile UFC fighters with him on the job.
“We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” Trump wrote, with photos of the six fighters accompanying Trump’s social media post.
Famously combative, White has at times clashed with journalists covering the sport during news conferences.
In 2020, he released a video targeting reporters who had questioned the UFC’s decision to hold fights early in the pandemic.
In 2009, he released 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 is a longtime ally – and friend – of Trump.
When White and his business partners bought the then-struggling UFC organisation for $2m in 2001, the sport was facing intense bipartisan backlash.
Just five years earlier, Republican Senator John McCain had famously labelled mixed martial arts “human cockfighting”, sparking bans in 36 US states.
“None of the venues wanted (the UFC),” White told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, in 2025. “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.”
With mainstream arenas shutting them out, White credits Trump with saving the organisation by hosting two UFC events at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001.
This summer, the UFC held a cage match on the White House lawn.
White became a speaker for Trump’s White House campaigns at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020, and 2024.