Conor McGregor issues plea to Trump as he attends White House on St. Patrick’s Day amid sexual assault lawsuit

Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor is meeting with President Trump at the White House on St. Patrick’s Day – where he called for celebration but also vented about illegal immigration.

McGregor, a Trump fan and former lightweight and featherweight Ultimate Fighting champ, made a surprise trip to the White House podium Monday morning.

He was accompanied by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who was showing him the room where she battles the press. Both wore green – with McGregor decked out in a sharp three-piece suit.

Leavitt said it wasn’t planned, but ‘very festive.’ When DailyMail.com asked the champ a question about undocumented Irish immigrants living in the U.S., Leavitt joked that he was ‘taking over the podium,’ and let him go.

‘Ireland and America we are siblings,’ McGregor responded, saying it was important ‘for Irish Americans to have a place to visit.’

‘We wish to be taken care of by the big bro. The United States should look after its little bro. That’s how we feel,’ he continued.

McGregor is meeting with other members of the administration as well. When he got hit with another question about simmering trade disputes – which were on tap when the Irish Taoiseach visited the White House last week – Leavitt tagged in.

She reclaimed the podium and said McGregor would be meeting Trump later. ‘We couldn’t think of a better guest to have with us on St. Patrick’s Day,’ she said.

But McGregor, who also attended Trump’s inauguration, retook the podium, which he gripped like a pro, to speak about the issues he planned to raise, railing against illegal migration into his own country.

‘What’s going on in Ireland is a travesty. Our government is a government of zero action,’ he said.

‘Our money is being spent overseas issues that has nothing to do with the Irish people.’

He said what he called an ‘illegal immigration racket is ravaging our country.’

The U.S. is home to millions of descendants of Irish immigrants who fled poverty to come here, and McGregor addressed some of his remarks to them.

‘The 40 million Irish Americans need to hear This. Because if not, there will be no place to come home and visit,’ he said. He said the country risked ‘potentially losing its Irishness.’

‘It’s also St. Patrick’s Day so a little celebrations for sure,’ he said with a smile, adding there would be ‘a little bit of learning and listening for President Trump,’ who he called ‘inspiring.’

The appearance comes just days after Trump gushed over McGregor, delivering a glowing verdict of the fighter – despite the sexual assault allegations facing him. 

Speaking with conservative Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the White House last week, Trump professed an appreciation for McGregor, who recently appeared at the President’s inauguration in January.

‘He’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen,’ Trump said. ‘Conor’s great, right?

‘You have a lot of great Irish fighters. I don’t know what that is, but Ireland has always had a lot of good fighters. You know why? Because they’re tough people. They’re smart people and they’re passionate people.’

It was at this moment when Trump remembered that Martin’s father Paddy was a boxer in addition to being a soldier in the Defense Forces and a bus driver.

‘I think your father was a great fighter, right?’ Trump asked Martin.

Martin immediately agreed: ‘He was.’

‘And yet, look at you, you’re so smooth,’ Trump told Martin, drawing a few laughs from reporters.

Trump then added: ‘Genetically, I’m not gonna mess around with you.’

The last few years have been difficult for McGregor, who has admitted to using cocaine while denying allegations of sexual assault.

An Irish court ordered him to pay $257,000 to the woman who accused him of raping her in 2018 on a night when he was admittedly using drugs.

McGregor filed an appeal against the verdict last month after a jury found him liable in the case in November. 

Furthermore, McGregor and the NBA’s Miami Heat are currently facing a federal lawsuit over claims the MMA legend sexually assaulted a woman in a bathroom at the Kaseya Center while security stood guard outside the stall.

Not only is he accused of sexually assaulting a woman at that game, but in a misguided on-court bit, McGregor struck the team mascot, Burnie, sending the costumed performer tumbling down to the hardwood earlier in the evening. A second punch sent the mascot kicking his feet and rolling in apparent agony.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra later confirmed that the person portraying the mascot was taken to the hospital, but assured reporters Burnie didn’t suffer any permanent injuries.

‘We won’t reveal who that is, but yeah, he can take a punch and get back up,’ Spoelstra said at the time. ‘He’s not going to miss any time.’

McGregor has since portrayed the incident as a ‘skit’ gone awry.

‘The mascot’s good, my man,’ he told Adam Glyn in June of 2023. ‘The Mascot is good. It was a skit, and it went the way it went, but all is well.’