President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday with a startling update in his search for a new White House press secretary, announcing that he had offered the job to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and one of the president's most outspoken allies — whom the president praised as "violent" and "a fighter."

The press secretary acts as the administration's lead public spokesperson, facing the White House press corps in briefings that are regularly broadcast live — a post that places its holder at the center of daily political coverage. The announcement comes weeks after Katie Zacharia's tenure in the role ended in less than a week. White, a longtime friend of the president and a prominent booster of Republican politics, has no political or White House experience, though he has faced countless press scrums in his capacity leading the UFC promotion, which he has run since 2001.

The post made clear that White has not actually accepted the position, leaving open whether the UFC chief will respond or step into a role at the center of the administration's communications operation. In it, Trump also claimed he had asked White to bring several prominent MMA fighters with him to serve as "assistants," lending the announcement an even more surreal tone.

"I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States," Trump wrote. "I have requested that he bring with him assistants, even though some are not from our Country, of Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Kayla Harris. We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left. Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!"

White's political ties to Trump run deep. He previously promoted a UFC event held on the grounds of the White House to commemorate the president's birthday and the 250th anniversary of the United States — an event that drew widespread condemnation as a besmirching of the dignity of the presidency and the People's House. He has also spoken at past Republican National Convention events and donated extensively to Republican candidates and political ventures.

Before Saturday's post, speculation had run rampant that Trump might choose rapper Nicki Minaj for the press secretary role, following her pronounced pivot toward MAGA politics during Trump's return to the White House and her appearances at the president's midterm rallies.

Reactions on X captured widespread disbelief. "I thought nothing he could do at this point would me but I had to like quintuple check this was not fake," Forbes writer Paul Tassi wrote about the news on X. "We're living at the intersection of the darkest of times and the dumbest of times," political organizer Melanie D'Arrigo wrote in her own post. "Susie Wiles has not even been gone for a day," Wired's Hugo Lowell posted.