In the US, it was suggested that Trump confused Dana White of the UFC with a Pentagon employee

The theory of the mixed-up namesakes

Social media users in the United States have suggested that President Donald Trump may have confused two people with the same name when offering UFC president Dana White the post of White House press secretary. This is reported by Gazeta.Ru, citing Sport24. According to this version, Trump was advised to appoint as press secretary a woman named Dana White, who works as an assistant in the press office of the Department of Defense, but the president apparently thought it was about his acquaintance — the head of the UFC. The said employee previously worked at the Pentagon, at Republican Party events, and at Fox News.

What is known about the offer and the response

On November 7, Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social that he had offered Dana White the position of White House press secretary and asked him to bring along assistants, among whom he named Russian fighter Islam Makhachev, former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Kayla Harrison. White responded by posting a photo of himself styled as an administration spokesman with the caption 'Moving on to the next chapter.' However, CNN later reported, citing a source familiar with the situation, that the UFC head had declined the offer. The position became vacant on October 9, when Karoline Leavitt left the press secretary post to move to a new job; before her, the position had been held by Caroline Levitt, who left it after the birth of her second child. Before that, White had said he was flying to Washington.

What remains unclear

The theory of the mixed-up namesakes remains a speculation by social media users: neither the White House nor Dana White of the Pentagon has publicly confirmed it, and the reasons for the UFC head's refusal of the position are not disclosed in the publications. It is also unclear who will ultimately take the press secretary post.