Donald Trump has found a new weird friend in Conor McGregor. Yes, we should all be worried
US president Donald Trump welcomed former UFC fighter Conor McGregor to the Oval Office of the White House on St Patrick's Day. Picture: X/@POTUS
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Burke family both appear to have been literally trumped in their very different attempts to impress the US president in recent days by none other than Conor McGregor.
I must admit I thought I was dreaming at first. Then I checked to make sure it wasn't April Fools Day.
Today, St Patrick's Day, McGregor delivered a press conference in The White House to a small number of reporters.
He tweeted overnight that he was flying to Washington.
It's uncertain if he was on a scheduled flight, or on a private jet.
"I land shortly in Washington for the most important meeting of my countries [sic] future. I am beyond ready," he stated on his X account late last night.
In an official White House tweet later, he walks through the familiar guests' entrance to the White House, exclaiming "Happy Paddy's Day America!" as an official in the background laughs.
During the press conference, where he is introduced by White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, McGregor takes questions from the gathered press pool of reporters.
He tells the room "Ireland and America are siblings. We consider America our big sibling."
He goes on to say that it is important for America to "look after its little bro".
Unprompted, he then launches into a diatribe about how Ireland's recent immigration policy has run a "ravage", and our government is "the government of zero action and zero accountability".
What motivates Trump?
It is difficult to find words that express how I feel watching this.
Why would the president of the US want to meet an Irish man who has been found by a jury in a civil court case to have assaulted a woman? A judge at the High Court later said the jury had “conclusively determined” that McGregor had raped Ms Hand.
Donald Trump is motivated by wealth and success, not by leadership.
He lacks all the moral tactics and strategies of a strong leader. He's a businessman who is motivated by the monetary success of individuals who he regards as geniuses.
Considering Trump is a convicted felon who avoided punishment for his own felony convictions, his meeting with McGregor — who has also announced his intention to run for president of Ireland later this year — is both weirdly interesting and extremely uncomfortable to watch.
What we are watching today appears to be part of a new world order that no one could have predicted.
It's not just worrying, it's sick.
Wealth may not be able to buy you health or happiness but, in the land of Trump, it can buy you friends and influence beyond your wildest dreams.
The mere notion that a cage fighter who looks beyond his own transgressions against others as though they are par for the course of advancing his own twisted ideals and ambitions is something that we should all now be seriously concerned by.
Trump is about to make another weird new friend — someone who could change our landscape that none of us could ever have accounted for.
I need to find words, but I can't.
