Washington (United States) (AFP) – It wasn’t quite a Zelensky moment. But mild-mannered Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin still had a couple of tense exchanges with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. In the annual Saint Patrick’s Day visit to the Oval Office, Martin begged to differ with Trump on issues from the Iran war to migration to relations with the prime minister of Britain.
“That’s what we want, is a peaceful resolution of conflict. That’s where we come from as a small nation,” Martin told reporters about the Middle East war. The 65-year-old Taoiseach was under political pressure at home to talk tough to Trump amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. Last year, Irish hearts were in mouths as Martin talked trade tensions with Trump just days after the US leader’s infamous White House slanging match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Then as now, Martin chose a polite but firm approach to Trump, who spent much of the question-and-answer session berating US allies for rebuffing his calls to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Noting the transatlantic tensions after Trump accused NATO of making a “foolish mistake” by not backing the United States, Martin added: “I’m sure European leaders and the US administration will engage, and hopefully we can get a landing zone.” But 79-year-old Trump was not satisfied. There was a tense moment as the US leader took a breath, waved for silence from the press, and responded. “I mean the only thing — I agree with everything you said — but we helped with Ukraine, and they don’t help with Iran, and they all acknowledge that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said. Trump then unloaded a lengthy list of grievances against both the leaders of Iran — “the worst people going back to Hitler” — and Europe.
Another thorny moment came when the Irish premier leapt to the defense of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “I do believe that he’s a very earnest, sound person,” Martin said when Trump criticized Starmer for failing to help on Iran. “We think you have a capacity to get on with, you’ve got on with him before.” If it was unusual to see Ireland’s leader standing up so strongly for the premier of his country’s former colonial power, he also had a history lesson for Trump. Trump pointed out a bust of British wartime leader Winston Churchill, saying Starmer was “no Winston Churchill.”
“In Ireland, it was kind of a different perspective,” chuckled Martin, touching Trump on the arm as he referred to Churchill’s controversial role during Ireland’s war of independence from Britain. “He created his own bit of difficulties for us.” On another of the few occasions he was able to speak during the 45-minute session, Martin rejected one of Trump’s trademark diatribes about immigration in Europe. “Just first of all, I would say, Europe is still a very good place to live in,” said Martin. “Sometimes Europe gets characterized wrongly in terms of it being overrun, or whatever.”
With his mind busy on Iran, Trump could perhaps have been excused for another lapse when it came to Irish politics. “Look, he’s lucky I exist,” said Trump when asked about Ireland’s president saying that the Iran war was illegal under international law. Apparently, he had not realized that President Catherine Connolly, the left-winger who was inaugurated to the largely ceremonial post in November, is a woman.
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