Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief executive Dana White has turned down US President Donald Trump’s offer to become his press secretary.
Trump himself announced on social media on Saturday that he had offered White the job. But a source familiar with the matter said White had not accepted the unusual offer.
In a post on his platform Truth Social on Saturday, Trump wrote: “I am pleased to announce that the great Dana White has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States. He is a vicious fighter and a fighting man.”
Trump said he had asked White to take six UFC fighters with him as assistants in the job, and posted their pictures.
“We need these people to protect us against the Radical Left Lunatics. Dana will be a Press Secretary like no other. Dana, please take the job,” Trump wrote.
One Trump aide said the offer was made in jest. But the post comes as the president struggles to find a new press secretary.
After Karoline Leavitt left the post, Katie Zakaria served as press secretary for only five days before Trump removed her too. Trump is having trouble finding someone suitable for the post, in which he takes a close personal interest.
The job has become more important since the Democrats, having won control of Congress, announced investigations into the Trump administration.
On Saturday, White House communications director Steven Cheung reshared Trump’s post, adding: “Absolutely! Do it, Dana White!”
CNN contacted the White House and the UFC for comment.
Asked about the offer at a press conference on Saturday, White gave no direct answer. He said only that he planned to go to Washington, DC, on Monday to meet Trump.
Trump fired Zakaria after a heated news briefing, making hers the shortest tenure of any press secretary in history.
Leavitt served as press secretary for about a year and a half. She stepped down in August, saying she wanted to spend more time with her young family, and joined Fox News as a news analyst this month.
White has long been known as a close Trump ally. He spoke at the last three Republican national conventions and helped build Republican support among young men, a group that played an important part in Trump’s return to the White House.
Speaking about White’s role earlier this year, Trump said: “He introduced me to people I had never heard of. Young guys. I saw 20-year-old guys interviewing me. I said, where did you find these people? They’re called influencers.”
But his popularity among young men began to slip after criticism from some of the figures who had helped bring him new voters in the 2024 election, among them the podcaster Joe Rogan.
To win those voters back, Trump held a UFC fight on the White House lawn this summer as part of the celebrations of the United States’ 250th anniversary. The efforts did not succeed. In last Tuesday’s midterm elections, a share of young men swung to the Democrats, who won majorities in both houses of Congress.
Trump has also signalled more changes in his administration. On Friday he replaced his long-serving chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller. Miller, known as one of Trump’s most hardline and trusted aides, takes up the post on Monday.
“I may make a few more changes,” Trump told CBS News on Friday.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report