By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump set off a scramble in the White House press briefing room on Monday with an appearance so sudden that aides had no time to place the presidential seal on the podium.
The cause of the sudden bedlam? Trump was eager to show off UFC CEO Dana White, a close friend more comfortable with watching fighters bash each other in the Octagon than mixing it up with reporters.
After heavy Republican losses in the midterm elections less than a week ago, Trump announced on Saturday that he had offered the White House press secretary job to White. Trump said on Sunday he was just teasing, but White came to the White House anyway to see the president.
“Everyone please take a seat in the briefing room RIGHT NOW,” was a press assistant’s urgent instruction for reporters over the loudspeaker.
The announcement set off a stampede among the press corps with TV technicians plugging in cables and setting up microphones. The spot on the podium where the presidential seal would normally hang was left vacant.
Appearing alongside White, Trump declared that White could be press secretary if he “would only take the job.”
Trump has been searching for a press secretary since Karoline Leavitt left in August and her replacement, Katie Zacharia, was fired last month after a week.
“Dana is really very unique. The only problem is he’ll talk for a little while and then he’s going to beat the hell out of you,” Trump joked.
Trump announced that a UFC fight this weekend at Madison Square Garden will feature “the two greatest women fighters of all time.”
“How would I do against one of them?” Trump asked White. “Would I do well?”
“I don’t think so,” White said.
White, who organized a series of UFC bouts on the White House grounds in June, made clear he had no desire to tussle with reporters.
“I have zero political aspirations,” said White, while nonetheless taking a few questions.
In his first four years in office, Trump was a regular presence in the White House briefing room but now, nearly halfway through his second term, he takes questions in other places. He has talked about moving the press corps out of the West Wing to a “less obnoxious location.”
But there was no talk of that on Monday. After Trump took questions on Iran, Ukraine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and other topics, he turned back to White.
“Would you like to be press secretary of the United States of America?” said Trump. “Would you like that, or do you just want to stay with that ridiculous UFC?”
“Thanks for the offer, sir,” said White. “I do not want to be in politics.”
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Stephen Coates)
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