WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – 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 “even though some are not from our country.”
White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a “violent Fighter and Warrior,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump also asked for six current or former UFC titleholders to join White, including two athletes from Russia’s Dagestan region, Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov; Americans Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier and “Kayla Harris,” likely a reference to Kayla Harrison; and Amanda Nunes, a Brazilian native who became a US citizen last year.
“We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” Trump wrote.
White declined the offer, CNN reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. White and UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, did not immediately answer Reuters’ requests for comment.
The White House press secretary role has been vacant since Katie Zacharia’s tenure ended last month after less than a week. 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’s Taj Mahal casino hosted some UFC events. But they have become closer allies since the UFC chief publicly backed Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016.
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.
The White House press office already has a former UFC spokesperson in White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung, who worked for White’s organization from 2013 to 2016.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Karen Brettell; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Additional writing by Noel Randewich; Editing by Sergio Non, Cynthia Osterman, Alistair Bell and Andrea Ricci)
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