Conor McGregor’s White House appearance is an insult to American women
The White House of the United States released a controversial St. Patrick’s Day greeting. It’s not the message, but the choice of messenger that irked social media.
While many expected a standard greeting, the White House official X account released a seven-second video instead. The man to emerge from the state doors was none other than Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor. While he is an avid Trump supporter, McGregor’s history of violence against women wasn’t left unchecked by social media.
X users railed against McGregor’s short greeting from the White House. One enraged social media user replied directly to the White House tweet. They wrote, “Why are you inviting rapists?”
Another X user snidely remarked, “The White House is Wakanda for sex pests.” These criticisms against the White House were not unfounded. McGregor, a disgraced fighter, was convicted of sexual abuse. Nikita Hand accused McGregor of rape and won her civil case against him. Social media users also recounted the severity of McGregor’s actions against Hand.
The outrage against McGregor bled to Instagram, with social media users describing his meeting with Trump as a “sexual assault convention.”
Nikita Hand’s case
Comments on social media were brutal, but nothing compared to McGregor’s own crime against Nikita Hand. The paramedic who examined Hand commented that they had “never seen someone so bruised in a long time.” When the perpetrator is an MMA fighter, it doesn’t come as a surprise. But it does nothing to make the scenario any less vile.
The court determined that McGregor must pay an estimate of $257,000 in damages to Hand. McGregor, against all odds, faced justice. While his professional partnerships suffered momentarily, the MMA fighter was not deplatformed on social media. Neither has he suffered severe reputational loss—although he is often plagued with comments on social media referring to Hand’s rape case. To date, McGregor still has 46.8 million followers on Instagram.
Failing upwards
There are a slew of other Irish-American actors—or even sportsmen—that the White House could have chosen. Surely, choosing Barry Keoghan or Cillian Murphy to greet Irish and American people on St. Patrick’s Day would have been a better idea. The actors of Saltburn and Oppenheimer are evidently better representatives of Irish excellence.
This incident still proves that men like McGregor can only fail upwards. To have McGregor, a convicted sex offender, deliver the holiday message is unsettling. Thrusting McGregor back into the spotlight diminishes the gravity of his crime. He had only been convicted in 2024, and yet he’s out here greeting Americans and Irish people on St. Patrick’s Day from the White House. It sends a firm message that McGregor is still a palatable public figure, even if he had used his power to assault a defenseless woman.
The White House either didn’t take McGregor’s crime into consideration prior to the holiday greeting or blatantly ignored his well-known history. In any case, celebrating this man—let alone giving him the honor of grandstanding at the White House—is an affront to victims who struggle to be believed. It’s humiliation for women like Nikita Hand, who had been shushed into silence for six years before gaining the courage to legally fight her abuser. But most importantly, this choice from the White House is a blatant insult to many American and Irish women who had been victims of sexual and physical abuse.
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