US President Donald Trump hailed Conor McGregor as “great” when discussing who his favourite Irish person is.
The former UFC two-division champion has been at the centre of controversy in recent months after being embroiled in a civil rape case.
Trump made the comments during a meeting with Irish premier Micheal Martin as part of his St Patrick’s Day engagements.
Asked who his favourite Irish person is, Trump admitted there were “many” before remarking: “I do happen to like your fighter.
“He’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen. Conor’s great, right. But you have a lot of great Irish fighters actually, great fighters.”
This comes in the wake of McGregor’s civil rape case, the verdict of which McGregor has lodged an appeal against.
Nikita Hand accused McGregor, 36, of “battering” and “brutally raping” her in a Dublin hotel room in 2018, and a jury in November found that he had assaulted her.
McGregor was ordered to pay Hand more than €248,000 in damages, and to pay the costs of taking the civil action against him.
The Irishman has not fought since July 2021, when he suffered a broken leg in a second straight loss to Dustin Poirier, who knocked him out in January 2021. He last won a fight in January 2020, when he stopped Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds.
“Notorious” was not the only Irishman to earn a namedrop in the meeting, with golfing great Rory McIlroy also receiving the plaudits from Trump.
“I think Rory’s great, he’s a great golfer,” he added.
“He just won two weeks ago, he’s a great guy, I played golf with him three weeks ago and he’s a really fantastic player.
“He’s in good form too, when he played with me he played very well, I can tell you. Rory is certainly one of the favourites, he’s a very talented player.”
