The joke ran for a day. Then Donald Trump called it off.

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac in West Palm Beach on Sunday evening before flying back to the White House, the US president said he had never been serious about offering the UFC chief executive the podium job.

“I will tell you, I was only kidding, but Dana loves the idea, and there’s only one Dana. He’s great,” Trump said, as reported by NBC News.

The post had been “a little fun”, he added, insisting that the UFC boss was already due in Washington on Monday for separate business.

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Dana White had leaned into the story in the hours in between. Shortly after Trump’s Saturday post landed, the UFC boss shared an AI-generated image of himself standing at the White House briefing room lectern on Instagram, captioned “On to the next chapter”.

White was in London when the post landed

White was overseas when his name was floated, fronting the Zuffa Boxing 12 card in the UK capital. Asked about the offer at the post-fight press conference, he said he already had enough on his plate but confirmed the Washington trip was on the books.

“I’ve got a lot of jobs already. We have a meeting on Monday, so I’m sure I’ll have more to talk about after that,” White told reporters, according to Yahoo Sports.

Trump’s Saturday post on Truth Social had called the UFC CEO a “violent Fighter and Warrior” and said White would be a “Press Secretary like none other”, urging him to take the role and bring UFC fighters as deputies against the “Lunatic Left”.

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Katie Zacharia lasted five days in October

The theatrics played out against a real vacancy. The press secretary job has been without a long-term occupant since Katie Zacharia left after just five days in October, having taken over from Karoline Leavitt, who departed at the end of August.

Friday brought another shake-up at the top of the administration, when chief of staff Susie Wiles stepped down and Trump named longtime aide Stephen Miller as her replacement. That context fed the speculation that Saturday’s White post might have been genuine before Sunday’s walk-back.

A friendship traced to Atlantic City

Trump and White have been in each other’s corner for a quarter of a century. Their relationship dates to 2001, when the UFC was still short on arenas willing to stage its events and White took Trump up on an offer to run two shows at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.

Since then White has spoken at three Republican National Conventions, donated $1m to Trump’s 2020 campaign and visited the White House during Trump’s first term. The UFC’s global reach and Trump’s political clout have become increasingly entangled, with White one of the most visible sports executives inside the Trump orbit.

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No replacement press secretary has been announced from UFC ranks or anywhere else. White is still expected in Washington on Monday for the meeting Trump said would go ahead “for other reasons”.

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