"Only Kidding": Trump Walks Back Dana White Press Secretary Offer as UFC Chief Still Heads to Washington

It began, as so many things do now, with a post. On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the president and chief executive of the UFC. "I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States," Trump wrote, alongside photos of UFC fighters. "Dana, please take the job!"

The post did not stop there. Trump said he had asked White to bring a team of "assistants" with him, naming six fighters: Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison. "We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left," he wrote. "Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other."

White was in London at the time, at the Copper Box Arena for Zuffa Boxing 12, and when reporters put the offer to him after the fights, he did not laugh it off. "I'm flying to Washington, DC, right now," he said. "I've got a lot of jobs... I'm going to meet with [Donald Trump], we've got a meeting on Monday, so I'm sure we'll have more to talk about after that." He posted a photo of himself standing at the White House briefing room podium with the caption "On to the next chapter." The White House communications director, Steven Cheung, reposted the president's message with the words: "Hell yeah! Do it, @DanaWhite!"

For a few hours, the strangest appointment in modern American politics looked like it might actually happen. Then, on Sunday, Trump pulled the rug out. Asked by reporters about the offer, the president said he had been joking all along. "I will tell you, I was only kidding," he said, adding that White "loves the idea" but that the suggestion was "just a little fun." He pointed to the list of fighters as the giveaway. "You see a lot of rough faces there," he said on Sunday. CNN, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that White had declined the offer, and one White House aide told the network Trump had been joking.

The confusion even caught the wrong Dana White: a former Pentagon spokeswoman who shares the UFC chief's name had to post on LinkedIn to clear things up. "To everyone texting me congratulations: thank you, but you have the wrong Dana White," she wrote. "I've stood at a podium and taken questions from the Pentagon press corps. I have never stood in an octagon. I'd like to keep it that way."

The job itself is genuinely open. The press secretary role has been vacant since Karoline Leavitt announced her departure in August, and the president's last appointment, Katie Zacharia, lasted only five days in October. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has approached White about the post before, and that the two men are close friends and allies. Whether Monday's meeting is about the job or something else entirely remains unclear. Trump confirmed the visit but said it was for other reasons.

So the offer is a joke, the meeting is real, and the job is still open. White has said nothing more since Saturday night. He is flying to Washington, and on Monday he will sit down with the president. What they discuss is anyone's guess — but after a weekend like this one, the line between the fight game and the political game has never been thinner.