Trump Offered the White House Podium to the UFC Boss — Then His Answer Came From a Boxing Arena in London

On Saturday afternoon, from his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, President Donald Trump went on social media and tried to fill the most awkward empty chair in Washington.

The post landed on Truth Social with seven pictures attached. One appeared to show a bald, broad-shouldered man standing behind the presidential seal in the White House briefing room. The other six showed some of the most feared fighters on the planet.

Within hours, the White House was silent, a CNN source said the offer had already been turned down, and one presidential aide was calling the whole thing a joke. Then the man at the centre of it opened his mouth in a boxing arena an ocean away — and nobody was laughing it off anymore.

“A Violent Fighter and Warrior”

The job in question is White House press secretary, the person who walks out to the podium and takes questions from the press corps on the president’s behalf. Trump’s choice for it was Dana White, the president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“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.

The Guardian noted, dryly, that these were “credentials unlike any ever used to describe previous press secretaries.” But Trump was only getting started.

The Six “Assistants”

The president said he wanted White to bring help — and not the usual team of young communications staffers with binders and talking points.

“I have requested that he bring with him assistants, even though some are not from our Country, of Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Kayla Harris,” Trump wrote, according to The Independent. The last name belongs to two-time Olympic judo gold medallist Kayla Harrison; the president left off the final two letters.

His reason was simple. “We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” he wrote. “Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!”

It is hard to overstate how unusual the line-up is. Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are both Russian. Nurmagomedov, who retired unbeaten, is reportedly close to Vladimir Putin, The Guardian pointed out. Nunes is Brazilian.

Inside the White House, at least one senior figure seemed thrilled. “Hell yeah! Do it, @DanaWhite!” communications director Steven Cheung posted on X, according to the BBC. The White House itself did not respond to questions from the Associated Press on Saturday.

A Podium Nobody Can Keep

To understand why the president might be shopping for a spokesperson on social media, you have to look at the chair he is trying to fill.

The White House has had no permanent press secretary since Karoline Leavitt left the role at the end of August, The Times of India reported. Her successor, Katie Zacharia, lasted about five days before leaving in mid-October after a single, widely panned briefing, according to The Independent. The Guardian reported that she had struggled with questions about why she described herself as an attorney despite having failed the bar exam.

The timing raised eyebrows too. The offer came days after Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. The Guardian wondered openly whether it was a real plan or “an attention-grabbing stunt” to change the subject.

And there was the money. White’s fortune from running the UFC is estimated at more than $600 million, The Guardian reported. The White House press secretary is paid $195,000 a year.

By Saturday evening, the story seemed to be settling. CNN reported that a source familiar with the matter said White had declined, and that one aide described Trump’s offer as a joke.

The Answer From London

White was not in Washington, or anywhere near it. He was ringside at the Copper Box Arena in London, where British former world champion Chris Billam-Smith was fighting Cheavon Clarke, the BBC reported.

Before he faced any reporters, he had already posted his own reply on Instagram. Alongside Trump’s post, White shared a picture of himself standing behind the lectern in the White House briefing room. The caption read: “On to the next chapter.”

Then, at the post-fight news conference, he was asked about it directly.

“I’m flying to Washington DC right now,” White said, according to The Guardian and USA Today. “I’m going to meet with him, we have a meeting on Monday, so I’m sure I’ll have more to talk about after that.”

He would not say whether he planned to take the job. Asked how it would fit alongside his duties in combat sports, he appeared taken aback before offering the most honest line of the night: “Yeah, I got a lot of jobs already,” The Times of India reported.

So the official tally, as of Sunday, looks like this: one presidential post begging him to say yes, one aide calling it a joke, one CNN source saying he had already said no, and one Instagram caption that sounds an awful lot like a man packing for a new job. It was unclear, the BBC noted, whether that caption was tongue-in-cheek.

The Friendship Behind the Offer

Strange as it sounds, the two men have been building toward a moment like this for years.

White campaigned for Trump in 2024 and praised him on stage at the Republican National Convention. In June, he staged a cage-fighting event at the White House to mark the president’s 80th birthday, The Guardian reported. When the White House ran a series of taxpayer-funded ads before the midterms, the first one ended with footage of that birthday fight and White’s voice saying of Trump: “He is the toughest, most resilient human being I have ever met in my life.”

That is the man Trump now wants standing between him and the reporters asking the hardest questions in American politics — with two Russian fighters and an Olympic judo star waiting in the wings.

On Monday, the two friends are due to sit down in Washington. Whatever comes out of that room, one thing is already settled: for one Saturday at least, the most talked-about job interview in America was announced by the boss, answered from a boxing arena, and captioned like the start of a sequel.