Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was “just joking” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Speaking to reporters on his way back from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, occupied the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t have as much fun with him.”
“I was joking, but I think Dana likes the idea and he’s a very competent guy,” Trump added. “Of course, I was joking. And you could tell because I put all the great fighters as assistants, that they were all going to come with him… It was just a little bit of fun.”
Earlier Sunday, the president shared on social media an AI cartoon made by one of his supporters that showed UFC fighters beating up journalists and another, Josh Hokit, repeating the racist remark about Michelle Obama that he made at the UFC White House event on Trump’s birthday in June.
The president said his false announcement that White would become his spokesperson, in a social media post Saturday, “was an example of something where I was joking, and then people said, ‘You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea.’
He did not specify who, exactly, supported the idea.
The first in a series of taxpayer-funded pro-Trump ads released by the White House in the run-up to the recent midterm elections ended with footage of the UFC fight on Trump’s birthday and remarks about him from White, who could be heard saying, “He’s the toughest, most resilient human being I’ve ever met in my life.” White has used this phrasing to describe Trump several times during the 2024 presidential election campaign, including singing Trump’s praises at the Republican National Convention.
The White House press secretary position has been vacant for three weeks, since Trump’s previous pick, far-right commentator Katie Zacharia, was forced to resign after she unsuccessfully tried to dodge questions about why she described herself as a lawyer despite failing the bar exam.
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