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- Delaney Sawyer via Deadline
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Trump appears with Dana White after joking about press secretary role
ReTrump appears with Dana White after joking about press secretary role
President Trump appeared alongside UFC president Dana White at the White House, calling his weekend offer of a press-secretary job a joke, and said the FBI is looking into Nvidia chief Jensen Huang's relationship with a woman alleged to be a Chinese government agent.
President Donald Trump appeared in the White House briefing room with UFC president Dana White on Monday, where he described his weekend offer of a press-secretary position to White as a joke. White said he has no political aspirations and added that he never explicitly turned the role down, leaving the matter open in a way that drew attention from reporters in the room.
Trump described White as a longtime friend and praised his resilience, pointing to the shooting that White survived earlier. The exchange was lighthearted for much of the appearance. White said a cage match between Trump and former President Joe Biden would go badly for Biden, a remark that fit the sports-and-politics banter the two men have long shared through the UFC, which White has built into one of the most recognizable promotions in American sports.
Trump also used the appearance to weigh in on baseball. He said he favors a posthumous pardon for Pete Rose, the Hall of Fame infielder whose lifetime ban from the sport was tied to his gambling. Major League Baseball removed Rose and 16 others from its ineligible list in 2025, a step that addressed the sport's standing for those players but did not carry the legal weight of a presidential pardon, which is a separate question that Trump's comments raised without resolving.
The briefing then turned to Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang. Trump said the FBI is looking into Huang's relationship with a woman he described as an alleged Chinese government agent, and he told Huang not to worry about the probe. Reports from PBS and NBC confirmed Trump's remarks about the inquiry, giving the claim wider circulation beyond the room.
Beyond Trump's own statements, the details of the FBI inquiry remain unconfirmed. Reporting available so far does not establish the scope or current status of the investigation, and officials have not publicly laid out its parameters. Nor is it clear how seriously the press-secretary offer should be taken, since the president framed it as a joke and White did not accept or formally decline it.
The Huang comments drew particular interest because Nvidia is central to the global market for advanced chips and to the broader technology competition between the United States and China. Any inquiry touching a figure of that stature would carry implications for the company and its relationships, although the notes available do not indicate any action against Huang or Nvidia beyond the president's own description of the probe.
The remarks reflected Trump's habit of discussing a wide range of subjects in informal settings, mixing personal anecdotes about friends with comments on national security and sports history. For now, the verifiable core of the appearance is the press-secretary exchange, the pardon remark, and the president's statement about Huang, with the broader facts of the FBI matter still awaiting confirmation.
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