Iran war, European immigration, and Kier Starmer dominate discussions between Donald Trump and Taoiseach

After the White House visit, Micheál Martin travelled to Capitol Hill for the annual speaker’s lunch

Tue, 17 Mar, 2026 - 20:31

Tadgh McNally

Donald Trump hinted at a visit to Ireland this September, launched a broadside at UK prime minister Keir Starmer, and mistook President Catherine Connolly for a man during his 50-minute St Patrick's Day meeting with Micheál Martin in the White House.

The US president also said the Taoiseach and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, the DUP's Emma Little-Pengelly "get along so well" and that they should consider a "merger", before adding: "I love mergers, but we're going to get into a little trouble, we're going to get in more trouble with that."

The meeting in the Oval office was dominated by questions about the war in Iran, during which Mr Trump said he was "disappointed" in British prime minister Keir Starmer for failing to get involved in the Middle East conflict. He repeated a previous quote about Mr Starmer being “no Churchill”.

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However, standing up for the British leader, the Taoiseach said he had done “much work to reset the UK-Irish relationship”.

“I do believe that he's a very earnest, sound person, who I think you have a capacity to get on with,” Mr Martin said.

“You've got on with him before, and you've got on with other European leaders as well. I think you have that capacity again.”

Mr Martin was later criticised by opposition politicians here for not defending President Catherine Connolly even as Mr Trump appeared to think her a man.

When asked about President Connolly’s comments describing US and Israeli actions in Iran as a "deliberate assault on international law", the US president responded: "He’s lucky I exist, that’s all I can say.”

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns later said: ""The only person Micheál Martin sought to strongly defend today was British prime minister Keir Starmer. He made a point of attempting to firmly rebuff some of Trump’s attacks on him.

However, when Trump mistakenly thought our own President was a man, Micheál Martin failed to correct the record.

Asked about the Irish public’s concerns about the war in Iran and its impact on energy prices, Mr Trump said he has many Irish friends who support the war. He said that once the war in Iran is over, fuel prices are going to “drop like a rock”.

Mr Trump also said he believed the threat from Iran would have lead to a “nuclear holocaust”.

“You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. If they got a nuclear weapon, I would say they would have used it within 24 hours after having it.

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“I think it would have hit Europe, maybe not Ireland, but it would have hit Europe. It is big enough, you would have been affected.”

The meeting itself came a number of hours after the top counterterrorism official in the Trump administration, Joe Kent, resigned over the war in Iran, while urging the US president to “reverse course”.

Mr Trump said said he was a “nice guy” but criticised him as being “very weak on security”.

The US president also criticised European immigration policy, saying the continent is ”a different place”.

Bad things have happened to you, very bad things and you better do something about immigration and you better do something about energy, or you won’t have a Europe.

However, the Taoiseach pushed back saying countries need to have both “fair and robust rules”, but also allow people in legally to aid the economy.

“No one is in favour of illegal migration and so forth... I think Europe gets characterised wrongly in terms of it being overrun or whatever like that,” Mr Martin said.

After the White House visit, Mr Martin travelled to Capitol Hill for the annual speaker’s lunch, where the US president warned the Taioseach about the US’s high trade deficit with Ireland.

He said Ireland had “better do something” to reduce the deficit, adding he hoped they would be able to reach agreement to sell the country US liquified natural gas.

“We want to sell a little to you, and the deficit will come down, down, down, and everybody's going to be happy. So you gotta buy a lot of our stuff."

Asked if he intended to visit Ireland for the upcoming Irish Open, which is being held at his hotel and golf course in Doonbeg, Mr Trump said he hoped he’d be able to.

“Everybody wants me to be there. You just said [Taoiseach], ‘I hope you get to go’,” Mr Trump said.

“We are going to try.”