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UFC CEO Dana White joined President Donald Trump at a White House press briefing on Monday, where Trump clarified that his recent suggestion to appoint the fight executive as his press secretary was merely a joke.
Trump made a surprise appearance at the briefing to address reports that he had reached out to White for the role following a difficult news cycle.
“We were having a very bad press day, and I said: ‘I don’t know why I thought of his name. ‘ He’s been my friend for a long time. I said: ‘You know, I think I’m going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary,'” Trump told reporters. “I said it to a group of the press and that was it. I was sort of kidding, and then they wrote the story as though I wasn’t kidding.”
TRUMP SAYS HE WAS ‘ONLY KIDDING’ ABOUT MAKING DANA WHITE PRESS SECRETARY
President Donald Trump welcomes Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White to speak during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 9, 2026. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)
White then took the podium to address reporters and shut down any rumors of entering government service.
“I have zero political aspirations,” White said. “I was at a fight for Zuffa Boxing in London when he called me and told me that he had done this, and the last 24 hours of my life have been insane.”
When asked by a reporter to break down a hypothetical UFC cage match between Trump and former President Joe Biden, White praised Trump’s toughness while dismissing the match up.
President Donald Trump and Dana White, UFC president and CEO, arrive for UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on June 14, 2026. (Alex Brandon/AP)
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“He’s the toughest, most resilient human being that I’ve ever met in my entire life,” White said of Trump. “Many times during the last eight or 10 years, I have told him: ‘Why? Why do you keep doing this? ‘ But as tough and as resilient as I thought he was, after he got shot, he proved he is a one-of-one unique human being.”
Regarding the hypothetical fight, White added: “It would be very bad. Yeah, I think it would be very bad… I can’t believe you actually have questions for me.”
White added that he never explicitly told Trump “no” regarding the position.
Before stepping away, the UFC chief was also asked what advice he would give Trump regarding a potential posthumous pardon for Pete Rose, the legendary baseball player who died in 2024.
President Donald Trump speaks with Dana White (left) during UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden. (Brad Penner-Imagn Images)
Rose was banned from MLB Hall of Fame eligibility due to betting on baseball games, including those involving his own team, the Cincinnati Reds. In 2025, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred removed Rose and 16 other deceased people from the permanently ineligible list.
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Trump reiterated during the briefing that he favors pardoning the hit king.