Trump blasts Ireland on trade during traditional visit

by Danny KEMP

It was perhaps not the welcome Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin had hoped for on an annual US trip to mark Saint Patrick's Day -- a dressing down from Donald Trump on trade and tariffs.

"We do have a massive deficit with Ireland," the US president said in answer to the very first question he faced with Martin in the Oval Office, before going on to lambast the European Union in general.

Trump promised to respond to tariffs imposed by the EU in retaliation for new US levies on steel and aluminum -- an economic shockwave that could hit Ireland too.

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Certainly the encounter with the Irish taoiseach, or premier, was calmer than the scene less than two weeks ago when Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky got into a blazing row, also in the Oval Office.

There was even a light-hearted moment as Trump ribbed Vice President JD Vance about the green-and-white shamrock socks he wore to honor Martin's trip, a tradition by the Irish leader ahead of Saint Patrick's Day on March 17.

But despite the pleasantries during the visit, the 78-year-old president had a long list of grievances about the Emerald Isle.

Trump said he had "great respect" for Ireland but in the same breath accused it of luring pharma and tech giants to its shores with low taxes.

"This is this beautiful island of five million people, it's got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grip," Trump said.

The United States is Ireland's single biggest export market for pharmaceutical drugs and ingredients, mostly manufactured by American companies like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Johnson & Johnson.

- 'Very tough' -

"I'm not upset with you. I think I respect what you've done," said Trump. "But the United States shouldn't have let it happen."

The US president complained about "tremendously bad" treatment of tech titan Apple, which was ordered by Brussels to pay a multi-billion-euro tax settlement to Ireland.

It then got personal, as it often seems to with Trump, as the billionaire former property developer complained about EU red tape holding up the expansion of a resort he owns in Ireland.

Trump finally returned to one of his favorite themes as he launched a broader attack on the 27-nation European Union.

"The EU was set up in order to take advantage of the United States," Trump said.

Trump also doubled down on his threats to impose reciprocal tariffs on the European Union in April.

"So whatever they charge us, we're charging them."

When Martin got a word in edgeways, he tried to strike a diplomatic tone.

"It's a two-way street," Martin said, adding that Ireland was stepping up investments in the United States.

"It's a relationship that we can develop and that will endure into the future."

Trump agreed -- and then went back to speaking about the deficit.

The Irish and US leaders also ended up talking past each other on the subject of the Israel-Hamas war.

Non-NATO member Ireland is one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in Europe, in stark contrast to Trump who has called for the US to "take over" Gaza.

"It's been our view that a two-state solution is the ideal," Martin said.