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Through social media, US President Donald Trump invited this Saturday (11/7) the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White, to the position of White House press secretary.
"Dana will be a Press Secretary like no other. Dana, please accept the position!" Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform.
It is not clear whether the job offer made by the American president publicly is serious. The BBC asked the White House, the UFC and its controlling group, TKO Group Holdings, for a position and has so far received no response.
The White House press secretary position has been open since mid-October, when Katie Zacharia left the post after just a few days in the role.
Trump's publication comes after a significant defeat by his Republican Party supporters in the US mid-term elections, in which the party lost its majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Trump described White as a "violent fighter and warrior" and asked him to take with him as "assistants" a list of prominent UFC fighters, "even though some are not from our country."
"We need these people to defend us against the lunatic left," Trump wrote in the post, illustrated with photos of six fighters, including Russian Islam Makhachev.
After Trump's post, White posted a photo on Instagram of himself behind the podium in the White House press briefing room.
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"Towards the next chapter," the post said, although it was unclear whether the comment was made in jest.
White, who is also the head of Zuffa Boxing, was in London on Saturday for a fight at the Copper Box Arena between British former world champion Chris Billam-Smith and Jamaican-born Briton Cheavon Clarke.
The BBC tries to contact him.
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Known for his combative temperament, White clashed several times with journalists covering the sport during press conferences.
In 2020, he released a controversial video aimed at reporters who questioned the UFC's decision to hold fights at the beginning of the pandemic.
In 2009, he published a video full of profanity in which he used a homophobic term when refuting a report about changes in accreditation rules for behind the scenes at UFC events.
White is a longtime ally — and friend — of Trump.
When he and his partners purchased the UFC — an organization that was struggling at the time — for $2 million in 2001, the sport faced fierce resistance from both sides of the political spectrum.
Five years earlier, Republican Senator John McCain had called mixed martial arts "human fighting" — a statement that had great repercussion and led to the ban on the sport in 36 American states.
"No venue wanted to host the UFC," White told BBC's U.S. partner CBS in 2025. "They didn't believe in the sport. They didn't like it and they were afraid of the kind of crowd that would show up at an event like that."
With the big arenas closing their doors to the organization, White credits Trump with saving the UFC by hosting two of the organization's events at the Trump Taj Mahal casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2001.
This year, the UFC promoted a series of fights in an octagon built on the White House lawn.
White has given speeches at different Trump campaign events, attending the 2016, 2020 and 2024 Republican National Conventions.
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