During the ritual humiliation of Irish prime minister Micheál Martin’s pre-St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House — which I wrote about here last week — Donald Trump was asked to name his favorite Irish person. The president appeared briefly baffled, and witticisms flowed for the next day or so on both sides of the Atlantic. (Does Sean Hannity count as “Irish”? Does Shaquille O’Neal?) His eventual response was “Conor,” meaning mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor.
Martin winced and chuckled, but said nothing, which was the basic principle of his entire performance. As he and Trump were both aware, former MMA champion McGregor was recently found liable in a Dublin civil suit for sexually assaulting a longtime acquaintance in December 2018 — the same charge for which Trump was found liable in the E. Jean Carroll case. Although the cases are broadly similar, the two men’s versions of events are different: McGregor admits he had sex with the woman in a hotel room but says it was consensual; Trump says the Carroll incident, in a department-store changing room, never happened at all.
