Donald Trump retweets obscene comments from fighter after UFC appearance

Donald Trump followed up his appearance at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in New York City on Saturday night by retweeting an obscene comment from one of the fighters.

Jorge Masvidal, who won the headline fight against Nate Diaz, was asked his opinion of the President in the run-up to the event.

“No matter what your views on Trump as a president, the guy’s a bad motherfucker,” said the Florida welterweight. The comment appeared to reference the fact that Masvidal fought Diaz for the “Baddest Motherfucker in the Game” belt.

On Sunday morning, Trump retweeted the video, along with the obscenity, and wrote “Great fight Champ!”

Trump was greeted with a loud mix of boos and cheers when he took his seat for the fights at Madison Square Garden. Some fans held “Trump 2020 Keep America Great” signs but others directed obscene gestures at the president.

Trump was accompanied by his sons Donald Jr and Eric as well as Republican house leader Kevin McCarthy and representatives Peter King of New York and Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

On Sunday, Trump praised UFC president Dana White as he tweeted that “walking into Madison Square Garden last night with White for the big UFC Championship fight was a little bit like walking into a Trump Rally. Plenty of MAGA & KAG present. Great energy. Fantastic job!”

The president’s son Eric Trump took issue with reports his father had been booed. He retweeted a BBC story saying his father had been jeered and commented: “What a joke. You are the most dishonest people. The audience was chanting ‘Donald Trump, Donald Trump’ followed by ‘USA USA.’ Dana White said it was the greatest entrance he has seen into a UFC. I can’t wait until we win again in 2020 to further embarras [sic] your profession #FakeNews”

Eric Trump may have been referencing the fact that the crowd broke into “USA” chants when the American heavyweight Derrick Lewis beat his Bulgarian opponent.

“I know everything ain’t going good in the White House,” Lewis said after the fight, before asking Trump to “turn it around”.

Even with the boos, Trump’s reception was far better than his last appearance at a sporting event. He was greeted with jeers and chants of “Lock him up!” when he attended Game 5 of the World Series last weekend at Nationals Park in Washington DC.

Trump has a history with the UFC dating back to 2001, when one of his hotels in Atlantic City hosted a fight card for the mixed martial arts promotion. White spoke in support of Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

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The two men had dinner together last week at the White House, and after Saturday’s event White said he was not worried about the booing.

“This is America, you can believe and do whatever you want,” he said. “If you want to boo, you can boo.”

Trump will host the World Series champions, the Washington Nationals, at the White House on Monday. One member of the Nationals, pitcher Sean Doolittle, said he will not attend.

“At the end of the day,” the 33-year-old told the Washington Post, “as much as I wanted to be there with my teammates and share that experience with my teammates, I can’t do it. I just can’t do it.”

Doolittle said his opposition to the president was based on “a lot of things, policies that I disagree with, but at the end of the day it has more to do with the divisive rhetoric and the enabling of conspiracy theories and widening the divide in this country”.