Irish PM treads carefully in Oval Office visit as Trump bashes European leaders

Michael Martin, the Taoiseach of Ireland, attempted to steer clear of discussing the Iran conflict and trade tensions at a White House meeting with President Trump on Tuesday.

The Taoiseach, Ireland’s equivalent of a prime minister, was the first foreign leader to visit with Mr. Trump since the Iran war began and did not seek to frustrate Mr. Trump.

He treaded carefully even as Mr. Trump bashed America’s NATO allies for a lack of support in the war.

Rather than taking a side, Mr. Martin simply expressed hope that the U.S. and its European allies could resolve their differences.

“We’ve had issues over the last year, but we settled them,” Mr. Martin said of the U.S.-European relationship.

Although Ireland’s government has not directly condemned the attacks, Mr. Martin has been under tremendous political pressure from his opponents at home to say the U.S. attacks on Iran breached international law.

“You cannot have a rogue state with a nuclear weapon or the capacity for nuclear weapons. Iran was a sponsor of terrorism,” Mr. Martin said. “The Irish position has always been, ultimately, can we resolve this? Can we get to peace?”

When Mr. Trump said he believed the people of Ireland were “very happy” with the Iran war, Mr. Martin did not respond.

Catherine Connolly, the president of Ireland, said the war constituted “deliberate assaults on international law.” The Irish president, a largely ceremonial position, urged Mr. Martin to take a stronger stand against the attacks.

“The violations of international law we are witnessing are shocking and numbing, but we cannot afford inaction. What we have witnessed in recent days in the Middle East, and beyond, are not political disputes,” she said in a statement earlier this month.

When asked about Ms. Connolly’s comments, Mr. Trump responded that she was lucky somebody was willing to take on the Islamist regime in Iran.

“He’s lucky I exist. That’s all I can say. Because if you are going to allow countries that are sick and demented, and they are demented, to have nuclear weapons — everybody in the whole world should be very thankful.”

Mr. Martin did not directly respond to the question.

He also remained silent as Mr. Trump took swipes at other European leaders, including U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Asked about Mr. Macron’s refusal to help open up the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Trump said: “He’ll be out of office very soon.” He pointed to a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and griped that Mr. Starmer doesn’t measure up to the World War II-era leader.

But Mr. Trump saved his most savage remarks for NATO allies. Ireland is not a member of the multinational military alliance.

Mr. Trump said the U.S. should rethink its membership in NATO and accused it of doing nothing to help the war.

“We help them, and they didn’t help us, and I think that’s a very bad thing for NATO,” Mr. Trump said, adding that NATO allies were supportive of stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but did not want to get involved in the war.

“Nobody wants to have Iran within nuclear because these people are crazy. They’re absolutely crazy, and they’re vicious, violent,” Mr. Trump said. “Everyone agrees with this, but they don’t want to help.”