{"id":50291,"date":"2026-11-08T10:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T08:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=50291"},"modified":"2026-11-08T10:26:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T08:26:25","slug":"us-president-wants-ufc-chief-as-white-house-press-secretary","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-president-wants-ufc-chief-as-white-house-press-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"US President wants UFC Chief as White House press Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">United States (US) President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had asked mixed martial arts promoter Dana White to serve as White House press secretary and called on him to bring some fighters along as assistants \u201ceven though some are not from our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">White, Chief Executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is a \u201cviolent Fighter and Warrior,\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Trump also asked for six current or former UFC titleholders to join White, including two athletes from Russia\u2019s Dagestan region, Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov, Americans Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier and \u201cKayla Harris,\u201d likely a reference to Kayla Harrison; and Amanda Nunes, a Brazilian native who became a US citizen last year. \u201cWe need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Speaking at a press conference on Saturday while in London after a boxing event, White said he would meet with Trump at the White House on Monday. The White House press secretary role has been vacant since Katie Zacharia\u2019s tenure ended last month after less than a week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Zacharia replaced Karoline Leavitt, who left the role at the end of August. White and Trump first worked together in the early 2000s, when Trump\u2019s Taj Mahal casino hosted some UFC events but they have become closer allies since the UFC chief publicly backed Trump\u2019s presidential campaign in 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Trump in recent years has attended several UFC events, and in June the White House hosted a night of UFC fights as part of celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The White House press office already has a former UFC Spokesperson in White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung, who worked for White\u2019s organization from 2013 to 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15386,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-50291","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Trump in recent years has attended several UFC events, and in June the White House hosted a night of UFC fights.","published_date":"","news_description":"Trump in recent years has attended several UFC events, and in June the White House hosted a night of UFC fights.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50293,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/50291\/revisions\/50293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=50291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}