Connecticut native Dana White joined President Donald Trump Monday at a White House press briefing, where the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO said he wouldn’t be taking the job of press secretary.
Trump had floated the idea in a social media post over the weekend, then walked it back by Sunday, saying he was only “kidding.”
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“I have zero political aspirations,” White said, stepping behind the lectern.
Trump appeared to offer the job to White in a Truth Social post Saturday afternoon. The post included an image of White that appeared to be AI generated standing at a lectern bearing the presidential seal. Trump also posted a cartoon video Sunday that depicted White as press secretary directing MMA fighters to rough up reporters.
Addressing reporters on Sunday, Trump said it was all a joke.
“He called me and told me that he had done this and the last 24 hours of my life has been insane,” White said.
White, a close friend of Trump, was born in Manchester. He was asked directly by a reporter if he had told the president he would not be press secretary.
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“I don’t tell the president no to anything. I – no, I didn’t say no,” White responded.
“I said, you know, I think I’m going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary,” Trump said, jumping in as White was fielding questions. “And 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.”
“We thought we have a little fun and we brought Dana here,” Trump added.
Several reporters posed questions to White. He was asked who he thought would win in a cage match between Trump and former President Joe Biden, and about his advice to the president about a posthumous pardon for Pete Rose, the baseball star.
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At the end of the news conference, Trump asked White if he would “like to be press secretary of the United States of America” or if he just wanted to “stay with this ridiculous UFC?”
“Thank you for the offer, sir,” White said. “I do not want to be in politics now.”
“I am devastated to hear this,” Trump said, leaning into the joke.
This article originally published at CT native Dana White turns down Trump’s press secretary job: ‘I do not want to be in politics’.
