The president didn’t mince his words while hosting Micháel Martin at the White House
We all know Donald Trump is a man who shoots from the hip, but even Ireland’s Prime Minister was left stunned by his bluntness during a recent meeting.
The White House has been a revolving door of European leaders over the last month, and Micheál Martin is the latest one to sit in the hot seat in the Oval Office, with him meeting with the president yesterday (12 March).
Trump has welcomed a host of heads of state in recent weeks, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but Ukraine‘s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy probably had the most memorable one.
Thankfully, Martin’s sit down wasn’t half as explosive… but of course, it didn’t exactly go off without a hitch either.
The Taoiseach – which means leader – presented the US President with a shamrock bowl during the St Patrick’s Day reception, which is a tradition between the US and Ireland that dates back to 1953. And after graciously receiving the gift, Trump decided to reciprocate by doling out a series of bizarre backhanded compliments to a bemused-looking Martin.
Micheál Martin gifted Donald Trump a traditional shamrock bowl upon his visit to the White House (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The pair quickly got down to business after getting the usual pleasantries and photo ops out of the way, and began to discuss the contentious topics of tariffs and trade.
The European Union – which Ireland has been part of since 1973 – announced it will impose retaliatory duties on the US in response to the introduction of tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports.
Trump didn’t seem phased about going toe to toe with the 27-member bloc, as he told reporters in the Oval Office: “Whatever they charge us with, we’re charging them.”
“We have been abused for a long time, and we will be abused no longer,” the 78-year-old added, while claiming that the EU ‘treats[the US] very badly’.
“The EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States,” Trump fumed.
Poor Martin probably wanted the ground to swallow him up at this point – but little did he know, things were about to get a hell of a lot more awkward.
After claiming the EU exploits the US, Trump was then asked whether he thinks Ireland does too.Without missing a beat, he responded: “Of course they are. I have great respect for Ireland, for what they did and they should have done just what they did. But the United States shouldn’t have let that happen. We had stupid leaders, we had leaders who didn’t have a clue.
“All of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies, this beautiful island of five million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasp.”
Trump pointed out that he has property in Ireland and ‘loves’ it there, but says he still isn’t happy about Martin’s nation supposedly getting one over on the US.
He went on: “For instance, when the pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland, I would have said ‘that’s OK if you want to go to Ireland, I think it’s great, but if you want to sell anything into the United States I’m going to put a 200 percent tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell anything into the United States’.
“You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here.”
The president didn’t mince his words when discussing how the US had been ‘taken advantage of’ (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The Republican was then quizzed about how worried the Taoiseach should be about tariffs, to which Trump replied: “Well he doesn’t look nervous. And if he was nervous, he wouldn’t show it.
“We do have a massive deficit with Ireland. Because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents who didn’t know what they were doing. The Irish are smart. They’re smart people. We don’t want to do anything to hurt Ireland, but we do want fairness and [Martin] understands that.”
The Taoiseach told the commander-in-chief that the pharmaceutical companies ‘are doing very well in Ireland’ and suggested a deal could be discussed.
“I think there’s room for those companies to grow in America and many of them, by the way, have already announced fairly significant manufacturing investments now [in the US],” Martin said.
Still, I guess any White House meeting which doesn’t emulate Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s is considered a huge success, eh?Trump also said that he ‘loves the Irish’, adding: “We’re always going to have that special friendship. The bond between our nations is as old as our country itself.”
