I can’t think of a more stressful situation for Taoiseach Micheál Martin than having to meet with Trump. It’s like juggling with live grenades. The sheer unpredictability of his mood, along with not knowing what questions will be lobbed at you, is a test of the mettle of any skilled politician. Do you go all sycophantic and give him some kind of babble or prize, or do you stand up to the bully and risk his wrath?
To be fair to Martin, he managed to strike a balance between the two options and came away unscathed.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will take some comfort from Martin’s defence of him, showing that the UK-Irish relationship, despite Brexit, remains very important.
In moments like this, you see one of the few benefits of having our joint First Ministers: they can each cover the events that the other does not want to do. Michelle O’Neill would not want to be anywhere near Trump, whereas Emma Little-Pengelly seems only too delighted to be there.
Trump did have a little joke about reunification, not sure how that went down with Unionists:
Ultimately, as much as many of us hate the current US regime, Ireland is an extremely lucky place to have such good links and reputation globally, and our politicians have to play the long game. They can all breathe a sigh of relief that they got through it without any major disasters.
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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