Trump Shares AI Video Casting UFC's Dana White as Press Secretary With Fighters on Hand for Questions

US President Donald Trump sparked outrage on Sunday after circulating an artificial intelligence animation that depicted Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief executive Dana White leading a violent White House press briefing.

Published across his Truth Social network on 8 November 2026, the digital simulation portrays the mixed martial arts promoter commanding the official James S. Brady Press Briefing Room whilst deploying world-champion cage fighters to physically silence and tackle journalists asking critical questions.

Trump later described the idea of appointing White as a joke. X user @DrClownPhD created the animation, which opens with the UFC executive addressing reporters in his new role. 'Trump made me press secretary. I brought help,' his character tells them.

One reporter has a question about Trump and democracy for the fictional press secretary. White calls on Khabib Nurmagomedov, the former UFC lightweight champion, whose animated character tackles the journalist and holds them down.

A later exchange draws on a remark another of the fighters, UFC heavyweight Josh Hokit, delivered in person to a crowd at the White House.

Josh Hokit's Line in the Dana White Video

The last question of the briefing concerns the 2028 presidential race. A journalist wants to know whether former first lady Michelle Obama intends to run. Hokit's animated character responds with a baseless conspiracy theory about Obama's sex.

Hokit fought at UFC Freedom 250, which the White House hosted in June. Speaking after his victory, he repeated the false claim about the former first lady and put a question of his own to the crowd. 'Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?'

Hokit later responded to criticism of the remark. 'I thought I was giving her a compliment.'

How the Rumour in the Dana White Clip Spread Online

The allegation about Obama was circulating online by the early 2010s. By 2013, YouTube videos promoting so-called 'transvestigations' were gaining attention.

The wider conspiracy theory targeted well-known women. Its proponents pointed to features of the women's appearance as supposed evidence that they were secretly transgender.

In 2014, a recording captured comedian Joan Rivers repeating the allegation about Obama. In the years that followed, conservative commentators and figures associated with Trump's MAGA movement recirculated the rumour. Digitally manipulated photographs also appeared in posts about the former first lady.

In 2023, Omar Navarro, a California Republican who ran four times without success to represent the state's 43rd Congressional District, encouraged people on X to repost the claim if they believed it.

Comedian and conservative commentator Terrence K. Williams ran a poll on his X account that same year. He invited users to vote on whether they believed the rumour about Obama. Of the X users who answered Williams's question, about half voted yes.

The Next Question for Dana White

Back in the fictional press room, a second journalist speaks up after Nurmagomedov tackles the first reporter. The journalist looks distressed. 'I don't feel safe.' This time it is Islam Makhachev who steps in. The animation depicts the UFC fighter carrying the reporter away.

Two fighters respond together when the next journalist speaks. The reporter, drawn with blue hair and a septum piercing, has a question for White. 'What are Trump's pronouns?' As the two women rush towards him, he protests, 'This is fascism!'

Hokit then repeats the false claim about Obama before an animated Trump enters the wrecked briefing room. Asked how the briefing went, White replies, 'Fiery, but mostly peaceful.'