President Donald Trump met on Wednesday with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the Oval Office in a celebration of the relationship between the U.S. and Ireland.
“It’s a great honor to have you in the Oval Office and have you in the White House,” the president said, speaking before the press.
Both men sat in the Oval Office and fielded questions from the media. Vice President J.D. Vance was also in attendance.
“We have tremendous business relationships with Ireland, and that will only get stronger,” President Trump said.
Martin said it was a “great honor” to be with the president and to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, which is coming up on March 17.
He also commended Trump for his efforts in the “pursuit of peace” and noted the new administration had accomplished “extraordinary things very quickly.”
President Trump praised the people of Ireland and Irish descendants who settled in New York City. “They love your country very much, they have a great feeling for your country,” he said.
The media moment focused largely on maintaining diplomatic relations with Ireland in terms of trade and business. President Trump pointed out that Ireland had happily been taking advantage of previous administrations’ weaknesses. “They took our pharmaceutical companies from presidents who didn’t know what they were doing,” he remarked.
“The Irish are smart people, and you took our pharmaceutical companies, and other countries…they made it very good for companies to move over there,” he added.
He also slammed the European Union for treating the United States “very badly” and said America would soon get “our turn” to be “tough” on trade.
“We’ve had a lot of bad trade policies, and yet we’re doing very well right now, but we’re doing well because I won the election,” he said.
The president was very clear that he would like to see the United States get smarter when it comes to dealing with the EU and even Ireland. “I have property in Ireland, as you know, and I love it, it does great, but I’d like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years…not just with Ireland but with everybody,” he commented.
“I think it is a relationship that we can develop,” the Taoiseach chimed in.
