Dana White: Who is Dana White? From UFC boss to Trump’s proposed press secretary, his ties with Joe Rogan and Khabib

US President Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday to announce that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President and CEO Dana White has been offered the job of White House press secretary. “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. 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!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Earlier this month, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia was fired after ​less than a week on the job, after a rocky start as President Donald ‌Trump’s top spokesperson. She faced days of questions about her legal credentials and criticism of her performance in a news briefing and interviews.

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Who is Dana White?

Dana White was born in 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts. His family lived paycheck to paycheck, which made his early years financially unstable. They moved from one working-class neighborhood to another in South Boston, exposing Dana to rough environments at a young age. (His family even had run-ins with the infamous Whitey Bulger.) Dana has credited this period of his life with shaping his tough, no-nonsense mindset.

In high school, Dana developed a passion for boxing and combat sports. He trained, studied fighters, and developed strong foundational boxing skills. By his early 20s, he was working as a boxing coach and trainer, an experience that helped him develop his leadership strengths. By this point, Dana knew that to grow his career and business opportunities, he had to move to Las Vegas. This was a city with fewer regulatory hurdles and a deeper fight culture, as per The Bos Sticks.

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Dana White early life and career

After moving to Las Vegas, White focused on the business of fight promotion and built connections within the local boxing community. A few years later, he reconnected with Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, two brothers he had known earlier in his life. When they showed interest in buying the struggling Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), White saw an opportunity. He had a clear vision of how the organisation could be rebuilt into a legitimate and commercially successful sports promotion.White is also closely associated with podcast host and UFC commentator Joe Rogan , who has been part of the MMA broadcasting world since the late 1990s. Another prominent figure in White’s circle is Donald Trump. Trump hosted a UFC event at his Atlantic City hotel in 2001, an occasion White has described as an important turning point in the organisation’s journey towards mainstream acceptance.

White later became an outspoken supporter of Trump’s political career. In 2024, The New York Times described MMA as the “MAGA movement’s semiofficial sport.” In January 2025, shortly before Trump’s second presidential inauguration, White also joined the board of directors of Meta. White has been married to Anne White since 1996, and the couple has three children.