Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor announced his run for Ireland’s presidency on Thursday, pushing for an anti-immigration stance just days after meeting with United States President Donald Trump at the White House.
“Ireland, the choice is yours and it is an easy one,” McGregor said on X, formerly Twitter. “Vote for me as your president and we will SAVE IRELAND TOGETHER!”
In a separate post, the former UFC star expressed his opposition to the European Union Migration Pact, a set of rules to evenly distribute migration, asylum, border management and integration claims more evenly across the bloc.
“Any other Presidential candidate they attempt to put forward will be of no resistance to them. I will!” McGregor wrote.
McGregor, who garnered a massive following among conservative men in the U.S., made his announcement the same week he met with Trump at the White House, where he told the president his “work ethic is inspiring.”
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
At the White House, McGregor also made anti-immigration comments, stating, “Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness.”
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin slammed McGregor’s visit to the White House in a social media post Monday, stating “Conor McGregor’s remarks are wrong, and do not reflect the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland.”
McGregor, a prominent figure in the “manosphere,” has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault. He is currently facing a lawsuit by a woman accusing him of sexually assaulting her in the bathroom at the Kaseya Center during the 2023 NBA finals in Miami. Last year, a Dublin jury found McGregor liable for sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel penthouse in 2018.
Rachel Morrogh, the chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, told the Guardian that McGregor’s visit to the White House was “sinister,” calling it “an attempt to rebuild the very damaged reputation of Conor McGregor.”
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“I think what has really shocked us is that the office of the president of the United States, which is so respected and so revered, is being used to launder Conor McGregor’s reputation,” Morrogh said.
