President Donald Trump welcomed Irish Prime Minister Miche\u00e1l Martin on Wednesday for the annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebration at the White House, where he added Ireland to the list of countries he says are taking advantage of the United States.<\/p>\n
Martin countered by noting Ireland\u2019s contributions to the US<\/strong> President Donald Trump welcomed Irish Prime Minister Miche\u00e1l Martin on Wednesday for the annual St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebration at the White House, where he added Ireland to the list of countries he says are taking advantage of the United States. Martin countered by noting Ireland\u2019s contributions to the US It was Trump\u2019s first Oval Office …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78318,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78298\/revisions\/78318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIt was Trump\u2019s first Oval Office meeting with a foreign leader since his recent sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which morphed into a shouting match as they jousted over ending Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. The session ended with Zelensky being asked to leave the White House.
\nMartin, who offered only gentle pushback to some of Trump\u2019s comments, returned to the White House in the evening and presented Trump with a bowl of shamrocks at an early St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebration. The duo also attended an annual luncheon at the Capitol.
\nThe president\u2019s banter during the Oval Office meeting also touched on Vice President JD Vance\u2019s shamrock-themed socks and Trump nemesis Rosie O\u2019Donnell \u2018s recent move to Ireland.
\nThe Republican president has been sparring with US allies and adversaries alike over trade, slapping double-digit tariffs on imports from countries from Canada to China and in between. During the appearance with Martin, Trump repeated his claim that the European Union was created just to stick it to the US
\nAsked if Ireland, a member of the EU, was taking advantage, too, Trump said, \u201cof course they are. I have great respect for Ireland and what they did and they should have done just what they did, but the United States shouldn\u2019t have let it happen.\u201d He was referring to the concentration of US pharmaceutical companies in Ireland, due to the country\u2019s tax policies.
\n\u201cWe had stupid leaders. We had leaders that didn\u2019t have a clue or let\u2019s say they weren\u2019t businesspeople, but they didn\u2019t have a clue what was happening and all of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies,\u201d Trump said.
\nMartin countered that the trade relationship is \u201ca two-way street,\u201d adding that Ireland\u2019s two largest airlines buy more aircrafts from Boeing Co. than anyone else outside of America.
\nMore than 700 Irish companies are also based in America, creating thousands of jobs, Martin said. \u201cThat\u2019s a little known fact that doesn\u2019t turn up in the statistics,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cI understand where you\u2019re coming from, fully,\u201d Martin told Trump, \u201cbut I think it\u2019s a relationship that we can develop and that will endure into the future.\u201d
\nAt one point, Trump became distracted as he talked about inflation in the US
\n\u201cBy the way, I love these socks. What\u2019s with these socks? I\u2019m trying to stay focused, but I\u2019m very impressed with the VP\u2019s socks,\u201d Trump said, drawing chuckles from others in the room.
\nVance had worn socks patterned with small green shamrocks as a nod to Martin\u2019s visit.
\nWhen a reporter asked Martin why his country would let O\u2019Donnell move there, Trump jumped at the opening.
\n\u201cI like that question,\u201d the president said, adding that Martin was \u201dbetter off not knowing\u201d about O\u2019Donnell.
\nO\u2019Donnell, a comedian and former talk-show host, and Trump have feuded for years. O\u2019Donnell, who is gay, recently announced that she moved to Ireland in January, citing a lack of equal rights in America.
\nTrump found a way to sneak his penchant for professional fighting into the discourse.
\nAs the meeting wrapped, Trump was asked to name his favorite person in Ireland. Trump referred to Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor, partly because \u201che\u2019s got the best tattoos I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d
\nTrump is well known for his support of Ultimate Fighting Championship and attended bouts during the 2024 presidential campaign.
\nHe noted that Martin\u2019s father was an acclaimed boxer, but motioned to Martin saying, \u201cYou\u2019re so smooth,\u201d suggesting he did not look like a boxer.
\n\u201cI\u2019m a pretty good defensive boxer,\u201d Martin joked in reply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"