Ireland’s Micheal Martin and Trump in awkward St Patrick’s Day exchange

Ireland, which took a strong stance on the Gaza genocide, is similarly robust on Iran, but Martin is criticised for passivity.Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has met US President Donald Trump during an annual Saint Patrick’s Day visit to Washington, DC, delicately pushing back against the latter’s stances on several issues, from Iran to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.The leaders’ sit-down took place at the Oval Office on Tuesday, on a day dominated by the resignation of US counterterrorism chief Joe Kent over the US and Israel’s war on Iran and Trump’s tirade against NATO allies refusing to get on board with military action in the blocked Strait of Hormuz.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Ireland tightens immigration rules to check population growthlist 2 of 3Connolly wins Ireland’s presidential election in landslidelist 3 of 3Ireland won’t participate in Eurovision 2026 if Israel does: Broadcasterend of listThe 65-year-old taoiseach – Irish for prime minister – was under political pressure to talk tough to Trump about the war on Iran. But as the Irish Times newspaper noted, he remained “effectively mute” for the first 20 minutes as the US president held forth on a range of grievances, including the resignation of Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center.Noting Trump’s accusation that NATO had made a “foolish mistake” by not backing the US, the Irish prime minister, whose country is not a NATO member, tried a diplomatic approach.“I’m sure European leaders and the US administration will engage, and hopefully, we can get a landing zone,” he said, appearing to mean a common ground.Then, Trump went on to complain that while the US had helped with Ukraine, “they don’t help with Iran”, going on to unload a lengthy list of grievances against Iranian leaders, whom he called “the worst people going back to Hitler”, and Europe.Ireland, which joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, has taken a similarly robust stance on Iran. Trump’s reaction to Irish President Catherine Connolly’s remarks that the US-Israel war against Iran was illegal under international law was, therefore, a matter of some interest.