Donald Trump’s telling response to UFC fighter calling Michelle Obama ‘a man’
We've seen plenty of bizarre moments during Donald Trump's second term but hosting a UFC event at the White House for his 80th birthday is something very few would have predicted.
The US president spoke about the event being a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity to showcase America's fighting spirit, despite the national side getting off to a great start as a host nation in this summer's World Cup.
Despite seemingly managing to finalise a peace deal with Iran over the weekend, Trump was clearly enjoying every moment of his birthday celebrations, which saw seven fights in total.
One of those saw Josh Hokit, an American mixed martial artist, claim a victory over Derrick Lewis but it was his post-fight comments which attracted more attention than the fight itself.
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Hokit praised Trump for putting on the White House event, before adding, “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?”
Although his comments were met with a mixture of cheers and boos, eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted the president's brief smile following the dangerous defamatory comment.
Trump and his supporters may well be big fans of free speech but it's perhaps important that they also read up on a little thing called defamation, as the former first lady could easily take down Hokit in a legal case should she so wish.
While the president might well deny his smile, there is no defending the racist video he posted about the Obama's earlier this year.
The 80-year-old posted a clip of the Obama's as monkeys on his Truth Social account while also repeating false allegations that Dominion Voting Systems helped to steal the 2020 presidential election away from him.
However, he refused to apologise and instead blamed a staffer at the White House, claiming he hadn't seen the final cut featuring the offensive finale before it was posted on his personal social media account.
Trump said: "I look at a lot of, thousands of things, I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine.
"If you look at where it came from, I guess it was a take off of the Lion King. And certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud. Nobody knew that that was at the end."
Meanwhile, the president of UFC Dana White has made it clear that he was not a fan of the false comments made by Josh Hokit following his victory.
“I understand that the Obamas are public figures, but I’m completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families,” White told TIME in a text message.
“Everyone knows my position on free speech, but I hate that kind of nonsense.”
LADbible has contacted the White House and Michelle Obama's office for comment.
Topics: Donald Trump, UFC, Politics, Sport
James Moorhouse