A reprimand of Donald Trump about commerce and tariffs was possibly not the welcome that Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, waited on his trip to the United States to commemorate St. Patrick’s day.
“We have a massive deficit with Ireland,” said the president of the United States in the Oval Office, before criticizing the European Union in general.
Trump promised to respond to the tariffs imposed by the EU in retaliation for the new US customs rates on steel and aluminum, a measure that could also affect Ireland.
The 78 -year -old president had a long list of complaints about Ireland. He said he felt a “great respect” for the country, but in the same phrase he accused him of attracting pharmaceutical and technological giants with low taxes.
“This beautiful island of five million people has the entire United States pharmaceutical industry in its possession,” Trump said.
The United States is the largest export market in Ireland for drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients, mainly manufactured by US companies such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson.
“I’m not upset with you. I respect what you have done,” Trump said. “But the United States should not have allowed it,” he added.
Trump complained of the “terrible” dealing with the technological giant Apple, to which Brussels ordered to pay billions of euros to Ireland.
The ex -Magnate also protested by the EU bureaucracy, which delays the expansion of a tourist complex that it has in Ireland.
He ended up extending complaints to the entire European Union, which he threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs in April. “What they charge us, we charge it,” he summarized.
When Martin was able to intervene, he tried to adopt a diplomatic tone.
He said that Ireland intensifies investments in the United States.
“It is a relationship that we can develop and that will last in the future,” he said.
However, Ireland disagrees with the United States on issues such as war between Israel and Hamas.
Ireland, who is not a member of NATO, is one of the most proportive countries in Europe, in marked contrast with Trump, who has asked the United States to “take control” from Gaza.
The visit of the Irish prime minister was developed in a much more relaxed environment than that of the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, two weeks ago.
The vice president JD Vance, who played an important role in the verbal altercation with the Ukrainian president, wore socks with clovers for the occasion.
“I am trying to continue concentrated, but I am very impressed by the vice president’s socks,” Trump joked.