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President Trump says he has offered the vacant job to the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Reports differ on whether White has accepted.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he has offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). In a post on Truth Social, quoted by DW and France 24, Trump called White a ‘violent Fighter and Warrior’ and wrote: ‘Dana, please take the job!’
According to Al Jazeera, which cites Reuters, Trump also asked White to bring assistants with him, even though some are not from the United States, and listed several current and former UFC champions. Trump wrote that ‘we need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left’.
What White has said is not fully clear. Al Jazeera reports that, speaking at a news conference after a boxing event in London on Saturday, White said he would meet Trump at the White House on Monday to discuss the offer. DW reports that White shared a photo of himself behind the lectern in the briefing room on Instagram with the words ‘On to the next chapter’, and that CNN, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that he turned the offer down. France 24 says he did not explicitly accept, and notes that the photo may have been computer generated. We could not confirm which account is right.
The job has been empty since 16 October, when Katie Zacharia left after about five days. She had replaced Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down at the end of August. DW adds that the offer came a day after Trump named Stephen Miller as his next chief of staff, following heavy Republican losses in the midterm elections.
White, who is 57, has been close to Trump since he backed his 2016 campaign. The White House held a UFC event on its South Lawn in June as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations. Al Jazeera notes that the White House communications director, Steven Cheung, once worked for the UFC.
The White House has been without a press secretary for three weeks. Who takes the role, and whether White accepts at all, will shape how the administration speaks to the press after its midterm losses.
Reports disagree on whether White has accepted, is still considering the offer, or has declined it. The planned Monday meeting had not happened when we read the reports.
Each link goes to the specific article or document we used. Two articles carrying the same wire report count as one source.
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