Trump says he was "kidding" about Dana White as press secretary, but they meet Monday

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he "was only kidding" when he announced on Saturday that UFC chief Dana White had been offered the White House press secretary job, the BBC reported. Reuters and AP News ran the same development in their Sunday-night and Monday headlines. This updates our Saturday report.

What changed

According to the BBC, Trump told reporters White "loves the idea" but that the invitation was "just a little fun." His exact words, as the BBC quotes them: "I will tell you, I was only kidding. But Dana loves the idea. And there's only one Dana. He's great."

On Saturday Trump had written on Truth Social that White "has been offered the job" and that he should bring current and former mixed martial arts fighters as "assistants." Saturday's post, the BBC notes, said "Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other."

The Monday meeting is still on

The BBC reports White said Saturday he would meet the president on Monday and would not say whether he would take the job. Trump said Sunday White was coming "for other reasons" and "is going to be in Washington." Neither the White House nor the UFC has said, in anything we have read, what those reasons are.

Why the job is open

The BBC says the post has been vacant since October, when Katie Zacharia quit after less than five days. She had replaced Karoline Leavitt, who held the role from the start of Trump's second term. The BBC also ties the offer to the Republican Party's loss of its majority in both houses of Congress in the midterms.

The business angle

White runs the UFC, the slap-fighting league Power Slap and the new Zuffa Boxing promotion, and the BBC notes he sits on the board of Meta. A sitting executive of that range taking a federal post would raise conflict-of-interest questions, but no one has said he is being considered in earnest, so this is a question, not a finding. For the UFC schedule, see /fights.

What is established: the president now calls the offer a joke, White's schedule still includes a Monday visit, and the job remains unfilled. What is not: whether the meeting is about the job. We will update if either side speaks.

Sources: BBC News, Nov. 9, 2026; Reuters and AP News headlines, Nov. 8-9, 2026. This is news reporting; the Chronicle takes no side in politics.