Well, that went well.
An Oval Office encountering that in any other St Patrick’s week would have been seeed as almost unimaginably contestational – but this time round the Irish delegation will be floating on air.
Micheal Martin was in the lion’s den today, the first directer to step into the Oval Office since Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s verbal bloodbath.
You could forgive the Irish PM for being apprehensive.
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This was always going to be the most vital visit of a Taoiseach to the White Hoparticipate in generations. What is usuassociate a elated green-tinged occasion was this year imbued with a new sense of gravity and worriedness.
The Irish regulatement knew it was in the pdwellnt’s traversehairs – any small country that boasts a huge trade surplus with the US was bound to be a aim for this administration.
American figures put that surplus in excellents at around €80bn (£67bn) last year, although Irish statisticians insist it was a mere €50bn (£42bn)… but still a sign up.
In the Oval Office, I regulated to ask the US pdwellnt if Ireland was taking profit of America. “Of course they are,” he replied.
But Donald Trump is at heart a businessman, and it sounded more enjoy a sneaking approval.
“I have wonderful esteem for Ireland, and what they did,” he inserted.
Ireland did exactly what they should have done, he persistd, referencing the luring of lucrative US multinationals.
However, he placed the accparticipate firmly on “unwise” American directers who “apvalidateed” it to happen. Mr Martin sat beside him, saying noslimg.
The EU, however, was set up to utilize America, Mr Trump claimed. It was “misparticipate”. Aobtain and aobtain, it was the Brussels bogeyman, not the Emerald Isle, that tire the brunt of his strike.
I asked if he would react to the EU’s new retaliatory tariffs with yet more tariffs. “Of course”, Pdwellnt Trump reacted.
After an anecdote about the deficiency of Chevrolets in Munich, I asked if he would now ponder tariffs on the vital European car industry – he replied in the declareative.
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Mr Martin sat beside him, saying noslimg. When the Taoiseach did speak, it was to hit Dublin’s talking points – the Irish-US relationship was a “two-way street”, with the Irish currently the sixth-hugest spendor in the US.
“Just see how many Boeings Ryanair is purchasing” was the theme of Mr Martin’s argument.
The men joked about the Taoiseach’s boxer obeseher. Pdwellnt Trump spoke admiringly of Conor McGregor and Rory McIlroy. The minutes ticked away… Ireland was left unscathed.
They finished with a talkion about the pdwellnt’s Irish resort at Doonbeg in County Clare. Pdwellnt Trump lauded the Irish efficiency in approving an expansion set up and decried the subsequent EU approval period of cut offal years.
Once aobtain: Ireland excellent, Brussels terrible.
There was so much worriedness in Irish regulatement circles. Now they must be wondering what the fuss was all about.
