‘On to the next chapter’: UFC boss Dana White says he’ll meet with Trump over press secretary job

Washington: Ultimate Fighting Championship boss Dana White said he was flying to Washington, DC to meet with Donald Trump after the US president publicly offered him the role of White House press secretary.

Trump said White was “a violent fighter and warrior”, and that he should bring mixed martial arts fighters from around the world – including Russians Islam Makhacev and Khabib Nurmagomedov – as “assistants” for the press secretary job.

“We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Dana will be a press secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!”

The president’s offer might have been tongue-in-cheek, given the UFC president’s business commitments. His post included a mock-up of White in a suit behind a podium, and pictures of various MMA fighters.

The Washington Post has reported that a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak about the matter publicly, said the offer was made as a joke.

However, at a press conference in London on Saturday (Sunday AEDT), White said that he was “flying to Washington DC right now”, and acknowledged that he had “a lot of jobs already”.

“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,” White said.

White earlier posted an Instagram story resharing Trump’s post, adding the caption “on to the next chapter”.

The two men are friends, and Trump hosted a UFC fight at the White House in June as part of official celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary.

The White House press office already has a former UFC spokesperson in White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung, who worked for White’s organisation from 2013 to 2016.

Trump has a long history of using social media to troll Democrats, progressives and political enemies. Even so, the post suggests the White House is leaning into the perception that it is in “fight” mode after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and the Senate at last week’s midterm elections.

It comes a day after Trump replaced White House chief of staff Susie Wiles with hardline lieutenant Stephen Miller, widely seen as the start of an aggressive staff restructure as Democrats prepare to investigate the administration in Congress.

Also on Saturday (US time), the president said he was ordering the Department of Justice to investigate what he termed “Weaponisation and Lawfare” by Democrats who were threatening to impeach or investigate senior administration officials.

Trump claimed Democrats were threatening Republican donors with imprisonment – potentially a reference to Democrats’ intention to probe corporate donations to the president’s new White House ballroom.

“This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this,” Trump claimed, without evidence, on social media. “These SLEAZEBAGS should go to jail for what they are doing.”

Typically, the Department of Justice operates at arm’s length from the president, but Trump has involved himself directly in the department’s operations, including publicly pressuring his former attorney-general Pam Bondi to hasten investigations into his political enemies.

As chief of staff, Wiles urged against some of these endeavours – particularly whether to force journalists to divulge their sources in leak investigations. Miller is reportedly in favour of using stronger tactics, potentially including arrests.

As the Trump administration faces upheaval, the highly scrutinised job of White House press secretary has been effectively vacant since Karoline Leavitt went on maternity leave in April.

Top administration figures such as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio filled in sporadically until Leavitt briefly returned in July, before resigning in August.

Last month, media commentator Katie Zacharia served just five days in the job before she was forced out, following an unimpressive debut performance in which she stumbled through a pre-written script and took few questions.