Trump Offers Dana White Top Press Role; He Declines — SkimNews
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- Trump said Saturday from his golf club in Florida that he offered the White House press secretary job to his friend and UFC boss Dana White, calling him "a violent Fighter and Warrior" and asking him to bring UFC fighters as "assistants"; CNN reported White declined, with a source familiar with the matter saying he was not taking the job.
- Dana White shared Trump's post on Instagram alongside a photo of himself behind the White House press briefing room podium with the words "On to the next chapter"; he was in London on Saturday for a boxing event, and neither the White House nor UFC responded to requests for comment.
- Karoline Leavitt left the press secretary job at the end of August, and the post has stayed vacant, with Trump still without a chief spokesperson.
- Katie Zacharia was tried out as press secretary, appeared uncomfortable in her sole appearance before reporters and left the job after five days.
- Stephen Miller, known as the architect of the administration's hard-line immigration policies, was named Friday to replace Susie Wiles as Trump's next chief of staff; Wiles was seen as a tempering force on the president's impulses.
- GOP control of both chambers of Congress was lost after historic Democratic wins in Tuesday's midterms, including areas Republicans had held for decades, and the staff shake-up followed those losses.
- Dana White is a longtime Trump ally who spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024; Trump brought UFC to the South Lawn in June for America's 250th year and his own 80th birthday, with a wire-mesh Octagon built under a spaceship-like arch called "The Claw."
Why it matters: With Karoline Leavitt out since the end of August and Katie Zacharia gone after five days, Trump still lacks a permanent press secretary; the White offer changed nothing. The episode lands amid a Democratic midterm wave that cost the GOP both chambers and a Friday chief-of-staff swap to Stephen Miller.
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