President Donald Trump met with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on March 12 for the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House, where the two leaders discussed topics such as trade tariffs and the conflict in Gaza.
Trump met with Martin in the Oval Office and again at an evening event, where the Irish leader presented him with a bowl of shamrocks. The two also attended an annual lunch event at the Capitol.
Their meeting marked Trump’s first with a foreign leader at the Oval Office since his sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which ended in the two leaders clashing over the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Martin used the occasion to praise Trump for his work in “the pursuit of peace” in Ukraine and the Middle East and said his administration has done “some extraordinary things very quickly,” since the Republican took office.
Trump also touted Washington’s “tremendous business relationships” with Dublin, which he said “will only get stronger.”
He told reporters that he and Martin enjoy a close personal relationship that’s “very strong” and “very good.”
The U.S. president also criticized a “massive” trade imbalance with Ireland and accused the country of luring away American companies.
“We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn’t know what they were doing and it’s too bad that happened,” Trump said.
Trump stressed that while he has “great respect for Ireland” the nation of 5.3 million people “has got the entire U.S. pharmaceutical industry in its grasp.”
Martin said trade between Ireland and the United States is a “two-way street” and that the EU nation is “investing a lot more in America now.” He said Ireland is the biggest buyer of Boeing aircraft outside the United States, pointing to airline Ryanair and aviation leasing company, AerCap.
Trump Says EU Treating US ‘Very Badly’
“We’ve added value to American companies. We’ve increased our value, they’ve got access to the European market, and they did all of that,” Martin said.He added that the relationship between the two allies “can develop” and “will endure into the future and will change.”
Elsewhere, Trump accused the European Union of treating the United States “very badly” and said they have done so for years, before reiterating his threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on other nations.
“Look, the EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States,” Trump said. “I'd like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years, not just with Ireland, with everybody.”
Trump told reporters he plans to charge EU nations “whatever they charge us.”
“If they charge us 25 or 20 percent or 10 percent or 2 percent or 200 percent, then that’s what we’re charging them,” he said of the planned reciprocal tariffs.
Elsewhere during the meeting, Martin repeated his call for a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza and his support for a two-state solution.
Trump responded to a question about Palestinians being expelled from Gaza, and he said, “nobody is expelling any Palestinians.”
