WASHINGTON — President Trump surprised journalists with a last-minute press briefing Monday featuring UFC CEO Dana White — warning them “he’s going to beat the hell out of you.”.
Trump brought the cagefighting executive to the briefing room after floating him over the weekend as his possible next White House press secretary.
“A lot of people think he’ll be our new press secretary,” Trump said after appearing in the briefing room for the first time in months — with only 2 minutes of advance notice. “One thing about him, he doesn’t play games, because I’ve known him a long time.”
“I’ve always wanted to do this. Who has the first question?” White joked as he took the lectern, clarifying he had no “political aspirations” and wasn’t planning to become Trump’s spokesman.
White is a close friend of Trump’s and spearheaded the UFC fight on the White House lawn on Trump’s birthday in June.
White took a question from Lindell TV correspondent Cara Castronuova, a former boxer, about whether Trump would beat former President Joe Biden in an Octagon showdown, saying it “would be very bad” for Trump’s predecessor.
White called Trump “the toughest, most resilient human being” — marveling, “I can’t believe you actually have questions for me.”
He then took another from a male reporter who asked if Trump should pardon the late Cincinnati Reds switch hitter Pete Rose, who died in 2024, of a tax evasion conviction from 1990.
“I think it’s fair to pardon Pete Rose,” White said.
Trump concurred, saying “I think Pete Rose was very mistreated.”
“He was 4,200 and some odd hits, way ahead of anybody else. A record can never be broken, and he was caught gambling. Now it’s legal, right?” Trump said. “He went through 40 years of hell.”
Trump proceeded to take questions on a variety of other topics, including the Iran war, the midterm election, the looming impeachment vote against Secretary of War Pete Hegesth and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s relationship with an alleged Chinese spy.
Trump said he floated White for press secretary because “we were having a very bad press day.”
“I sent it to a group of the press, and that was it. I was sort of kidding, and then they wrote the stories as though I wasn’t kidding, and you were inundated, and I was inundated,” Trump said.
“We thought to have a little fun, and we brought Dana here. He would be fantastic.”
The briefing concluded with Trump offering White the job.
“Let me ask you the big question, Dana: Would you like to be press secretary of the United States of America?” the president said.
“Thank you for the offer, sir. I do not want to be in politics,” White said.
“I am devastated to hear this. Goodbye, everybody,” Trump said before walking off stage.
