The White House briefing room has been without a press secretary since October 16, and on Saturday, President Donald Trump tried to fill it with a name known far more for the cage than the lectern. Dana White, who runs the UFC, was offered the job in a public post, and White answered with a picture of himself at the podium. By evening, social media users had found another Dana White and were joking that the president had picked the wrong one. For many, the joke brought back a famous moment from the 2020 election, when a press conference was held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. Both “mix-ups” happened exactly 6 years apart.

The Post That Set It Off

The offer arrived on Truth Social, in the president’s usual style. “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. Dana, please take the job!” Trump wrote.

“Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other,” he added.

White is the president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and one of Trump’s longtime allies, and Trump said he hoped White would bring six UFC fighters into the White House as advisers, “even though some are not from our Country”. Two of the fighters named are Russian and one is Brazilian, and Trump shared photos of all six. “We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left,” he wrote.

White did not say outright whether he would accept, but he posted a photo, made with artificial intelligence, of himself standing behind the lectern in the White House briefing room, with the caption “On to the next chapter”. He also shared a screenshot of Trump’s post.

Later on Saturday, White was at a fight in London between British former world champion Chris Billam-Smith and Cheavon Clarke, and at a news conference afterwards he said he was flying to Washington for a meeting with Trump on Monday. “I got a lot of jobs already,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll have something to talk about after that.”

Enter The Other Dana White

Social media users did not wait for Monday, and some went looking for another Dana White and found one.

Spencer T Hakimian, founder of the New York hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, posted a video about Dana W White, a former Assistant to the Secretary of Defence for Public Affairs. “I guarantee you 100%, somebody recommended her to Trump, and he mistook her for the UFC’s Dana White, and now we all are in this mess,” he joked.

Journalist and podcast host V Spehar joined in with a post on Instagram. “How bad do you think Donald Trump is gonna flip out when he realises that the Dana White being proposed as the next Press Secretary for him is not Dana White, the UFC President,” they wrote.

The Joke That Called Up Four Seasons

For many people, the joke called up an older one from November 2020, when election results from Pennsylvania and other states were being released, and Trump’s campaign announced a surprise press conference. Many assumed it would be held at the Four Seasons hotel near Broad Street, but it was held instead in the car park of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, a commercial landscaping and snow removal business on State Road in north-east Philadelphia.

No one could say for sure whether it was planned or a mix-up, and the whole affair felt confused from start to finish. Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani spoke on behalf of his boss with the company’s sign behind him, and the nearby businesses on State Road included a sex shop and a crematorium. Nobody ever confirmed that it was a mistake.

I could write jokes for 800 years and I’d never think of something funnier than Trump booking the Four Seasons for his big presser, and it turning out to be the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot between a dildo store and a crematorium. https://t.co/P45HV1daD9

— Zack Bornstein (@ZackBornstein) November 8, 2020

READ | Will Dana White Take Trump’s Job Offer? UFC Chief Keeps Reporters Guessing

The Owner Who Rolled With It

The firm’s owner, Marie Siravo, played along with the attention, selling T-shirts with slogans such as “Make America Rake Again” and “Lawn and Order” and coining phrases like “in sod we trust”. More than 35,000 T-shirts, sweaters and face masks were sold, bringing in over $1.3m in sales, with customers including Jake Tapper, Mike Myers and Emma Watson.

A Podium With a Revolving Door

The press secretary job has been vacant since October 16, when Katie Zacharia left after less than a week in the role. Trump had announced her on October 9 as the replacement for Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history and a longtime member of his inner circle.

Ms Zacharia faced scrutiny after her first briefing, a 14-minute appearance with halting remarks, and then over claims that she had long described herself as a lawyer without having passed a bar exam.

READ | Did Trump Pick Wrong Dana White For Press Secretary? Internet Is Convinced

Who Is Dana White?

White, 57, runs the world’s largest mixed martial arts organisation, and he also leads Power Slap, has just launched Zuffa Boxing, and was named to Meta’s board last year.

He has a long history with Trump. When he and his partners bought the struggling UFC for $2m in 2001, the sport faced bans in 36 US states after Senator John McCain labelled it “human cockfighting”. “None of the venues wanted [the UFC],” White said in 2025. He credits Trump with helping to save it by hosting two events at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and he later spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and joined Trump on stage after the 2024 victory. This summer, the UFC staged a cage match on the White House lawn.

White is also known for blunt exchanges with reporters, a point likely to be noted in a role built around the press, and he released a 2020 clip criticising journalists who questioned holding fights during the pandemic and a 2009 video tirade aimed at a reporter.