WASHINGTON — The craic wasn’t all good at the White House Wednesday, as President Trump hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office — and used the pre-St. Patrick’s Day meeting to attack the European Union over trade and defend his market-rattling tariff policies.
At one point, in front of the world’s media, Trump said America had “stupid leaders” who let the “entire US pharmaceutical industry” migrate to Ireland — before vowing that his administration would use reciprocal tariffs to “take back the wealth” from other countries.
“The United States of America is going to take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries and by, frankly, incompetent US leadership,” Trump, 78, told Martin, 64.
“You took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies,” the president went on. “We have presidents and people that were involved in this and had no idea what they were doing. And there was big segments of our economy.”
Many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies have significant operations in Ireland, due to Dublin’s friendly corporate tax rate of 12.5% and status as a member of the European Union, with its accompanying trade benefits.
The US-based companies with a major footprint in Ireland include Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Merck and Pfizer.
“When the pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland, I would have said, ‘That’s OK. If you want to go to Ireland, I think it’s great. But if you want to go to Ireland, I think it’s great, but if you want
to sell anything into the United States, I’m going to put a 200% tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell anything into the United States,’” Trump ranted as Martin sat awkwardly next to him.
The PM, also known as the Taoiseach, makes an annual visit to the White House to deepen bilateral relations and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, usually giving the president a bowl of shamrocks and jointly attending a holiday reception with Irish tapdancing.
This year, there was notable tension on display after the EU announced hours before Martin arrived at the White House that it was levying $28 billion worth of tariffs on US goods after a 25% duty on European aluminum and steel took effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Martin tried to play conciliator, telling Trump that the business relationship between Ireland and the US was “a two-way street” and adding “I think it’s a pretty good relationship we have.”
Martin is the first foreign head of government Trump has met face-to-face since his shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Feb. 28.
“It was quite extraordinary. Very, very unsettling,” Martin said of the dustup hours after the Ukrainian president was kicked out of the White House.
However, the Taoiseach celebrated the US and Ukraine delegations agreeing on a cease-fire proposal in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
“A lasting, durable and fair peace in Ukraine is something we all desire. We welcome the outcome of talks today between the US and Ukraine. A pathway to peace now exists,” Martin wrote on X.
Earlier Wednesday, Martin told Vice President JD Vance at his residence: “We know that building peace is a difficult and painstaking task, and we are ready to play our part to support the work to end conflict and to secure peace in the Ukraine.”
