Trump Pitches UFC Chief Dana White for White House Press Secretary

The president’s mock appointment turns a longtime personal alliance into a political performance, complete with a proposed team of heavyweight MMA champions enlisted to take on the left

Donald Trump has turned the White House press secretary’s job into an unlikely UFC proposition. His candidate is Dana White, the league’s longtime president and a friend of more than 25 years. The offer, announced on Truth Social in a post laced with irony, came with a proposed staff drawn from the sport’s biggest names: Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harris.

Trump’s pitch was less a personnel announcement than a political stunt. Presenting White as a fearless fighter and warrior, the president urged him to assemble the team, acknowledging that some of the proposed recruits are not American citizens. Their purpose, he suggested, would extend well beyond handling questions from reporters.

“We need these people to defend us against the crazy Left,” Trump wrote, linking the imagined communications operation to the Republican defeat in the midterm elections. He promised that White would be a press secretary unlike any the White House had seen before, then closed with an emphatic plea: “Dana, please accept the job!”

The post came with its own visual staging. Trump shared photographs of the fighters alongside an image of White in a suit, standing behind a podium as if he had already taken up the position. The combination of a mock appointment, a ready-made roster of fighters and a staged portrait turned the announcement into a piece of political theater built around Trump’s longstanding association with combat sports.

That association is personal as well as political. White, 57, was born in Manchester, Connecticut, on July 28, 1969. He has attended several Republican conventions and has been among Trump’s most visible allies in the world of professional sports. Their relationship dates back more than 25 years. Speaking to ESPN last May, White described the president as “one of my best friends” and said their friendship grew stronger with each passing year.

White has also helped bring the UFC directly into Trump’s political orbit. On June 14, he organized a UFC event at the White House to mark the president’s 80th birthday.

The press secretary’s office has previously been held by Karoline Leavitt and, briefly, by Katie Zacharia. Trump’s post offered no indication of a formal change in personnel; its language and presentation framed White’s prospective appointment as a joke. But the choice of a longtime ally, and the fighters enlisted in the imagined communications team, gave the message a distinctly political edge.

(Photo: © AndKronos)