President Donald Trump of the United States will meet with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Wednesday, with his trade policies and the conflict in Gaza among the potential topics of discussion.
DAILY POST reports that the annual White House meeting to mark St. Patrick’s Day is usually a relatively straightforward affair for both the United States and Ireland.
The Irish premier typically presents the president with a bowl of shamrocks as a symbolic gift, a tradition that will be observed during this visit.
However, the meeting comes as Trump has begun to shake up the global economy with a raft of tariffs, with many more promised or threatened.
While none of the measures has been aimed directly at Ireland, the nation of 5.4 million has a trade surplus with the United States and US-owned foreign multinationals employ a significant portion of Irish workers.
Trump has repeatedly taken aim at countries with which the United States has a trade deficit, and he has pledged broad measures to bring jobs back to the US, threatening to slap tariffs on pharmaceutical products, a major industry in Ireland.
“I am very, very conscious that in a very challenging world, thousands and thousands of jobs depend on the economic relationship between the United States and Ireland,” Martin said earlier this month.
Ireland is not a member of NATO and it has not provided lethal aid to Ukraine, but Ireland has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in non-lethal aid to the eastern European nation, and Martin has said Ireland has room to contribute more.
