WASHINGTON (The Thursday Times) — President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had offered Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the job of White House press secretary, and asked him to bring six of the sport’s biggest names, among them Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, as his assistants.
“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 on Truth Social. “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.”
“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!” The post carried a picture of White at a podium bearing the presidential seal, alongside photos of the six fighters. There was no immediate word from White.
The fighters: Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired unbeaten in 29 professional fights, and Islam Makhachev are Muslims from Dagestan in Russia, and Amanda Nunes, a former champion in two weight classes, is from Brazil. Justin Gaethje and Daniel Cormier, a former two-division champion who now commentates, are American, as is Kayla Harrison, a two-time Olympic judo gold medallist. Trump’s post spelt her name “Kayla Harris”.
White is not a fighter himself. He has run the UFC for more than two decades, is a longtime friend of Trump and spoke for him at the Republican conventions of 2016, 2020 and 2024. In June he staged UFC Freedom 250, a card fought in a cage on the White House South Lawn to mark Trump’s 80th birthday, the first professional sporting event held at the White House.
An empty podium: Karoline Leavitt, who had been press secretary since the first day of Trump’s second term, left the job at the end of August. In October, White House officials said Katie Zacharia, a senior communications adviser at Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, would replace her. Trump’s post did not mention Zacharia.
The offer came on the same day Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate Democrats he accused of “extortion”, and a day after he named Stephen Miller White House chief of staff, as he reshapes his team after Republicans lost both houses of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
