{"id":4008,"date":"2026-11-08T09:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T04:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4008"},"modified":"2026-11-08T09:03:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T04:03:54","slug":"trump-says-he-wants-ufc-chief-for-white-house-press-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4008","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he wants UFC chief for White House press secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had asked mixed martial arts promoter Dana White to serve \u200bas White House press secretary and called on him to bring \u200csome fighters along as assistants \u201ceven though some are not from our country.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a \u201cviolent Fighter and Warrior,\u201d Trump wrote in a \u200bTruth Social post.<\/p>\n

Trump also asked for six current or former UFC<\/u><\/a> titleholders \u200bto join White, including two athletes from Russia\u2019s Dagestan region, \u2060Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov; Americans Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier and \u201cKayla Harris,\u201d \u200blikely a reference to Kayla Harrison; and Amanda Nunes, a Brazilian native who \u200bbecame a US citizen last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday while in London after a \u200bboxing event, White said he would meet with Trump at the White \u200bHouse on Monday.<\/p>\n

The White House press secretary role has been vacant since Katie Zacharia\u2019s tenure ended \u200clast \u2060month<\/u><\/a> after less than a week.<\/p>\n

Zacharia replaced Karoline Leavitt, who left the role at the end of August.<\/p>\n

White and Trump first worked together in the early 2000s, when Trump\u2019s Taj Mahal casino hosted some UFC events.<\/p>\n

But \u200bthey have become \u200bcloser allies since \u2060the UFC chief publicly backed Trump\u2019s presidential campaign in 2016.<\/p>\n

Trump in recent years has attended several UFC events, and \u200bin June the White House hosted a night of UFC \u200bfights<\/u><\/a> as \u2060part of celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.<\/p>\n

The White House press office already has a former UFC spokesperson in White House Director of Communications \u2060Steven Cheung, \u200bwho worked for White\u2019s organisation from 2013 \u200bto 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had asked mixed martial arts promoter Dana White to serve \u200bas White House press secretary and called on him to bring \u200csome fighters along as assistants \u201ceven though some are not from our country.\u201d White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a \u201cviolent Fighter and Warrior,\u201d Trump wrote in a \u200bTruth Social post. Trump also asked for six current or former UFC titleholders \u200bto join White, including two athletes from Russia\u2019s Dagestan region, \u2060Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov; Americans Justin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}