Micheál Martin should have stood up for Europe

A single word in support of our EU partners would have reassured them that Ireland gets it, but none was forthcoming

Thu, 13 Mar, 2025 - 18:00

Edward Burke

Donald Trump is a bully who looks for weakness and takes what he can. His conduct during press conferences is a mixture of vanity and menace. As the leader of a small state coming to the Oval Office, you could forgive Taoiseach Micheál Martin for not wishing to offend this most thin-skinned of presidents.

The problem for the Taoiseach is that he was meeting the president just hours after Trump had started a trade war with the European Union, announcing tariffs of 25 per cent on US imports of steel and aluminium products.

The EU quickly responded by saying it would impose counter-tariffs on up to €26bn worth of US goods in the coming weeks. Yet the timing of that announcement was condemned by some in Ireland.

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern observed that: “If it had been me, I would have been very annoyed at the EU for deciding to make their statements this morning. That wasn’t very helpful to the Taoiseach.”

Bizarrely, rather than blaming Trump for starting a trade war shortly before meeting with the leader of an EU member state, Ahern took issue with Brussels for sending a clear and immediate signal of strength and unity to Washington.

Micheál Martin did not mention the EU once during his nearly one-hour meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, aside from a brief mention of how US companies based in Ireland had access to “the European market”.

President Trump referred to the EU 16 times, claiming its core mission is “to take advantage of the United States”. The Taoiseach offered no defence of the EU, not even a gentle attempt to suggest past EU-US disagreements could be overcome under Trump’s presidency.

In his meeting with Micheál Martin, Trump said he was in 'a battle' with the EU and that he was going to win it.

Trump went on to say he was “going to take back the wealth” from Ireland, and that American companies would soon be relocating to the United States.

For some, the fact Micheál Martin avoided being upbraided or mistreated in the Oval Office was a success in itself. The encounter was the first with a European leader since Trump’s recent White House attack on Ukraine’s president.

At that meeting, Trump berated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, telling him he did not “have the cards” and he should simply accept US demands — sign a bilateral minerals agreement and agree to a ceasefire without any security guarantees from Washington, although no pressure had yet been placed on Russia to reciprocate.

Without such guarantees, President Zelenskyy was rightly concerned the Putin regime would strengthen its position and once again violate a ceasefire agreement. By resisting Trump in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy may yet get better for his country.

The Taoiseach praised Trump for his “peace initiatives” when it came to Ukraine. But Micheál Martin should also recall that when Michael Gove, a Conservative government minister and a leader of the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, claimed Britain held “all the cards” in its future negotiations over post-Brexit arrangements such as the border in Ireland, the EU rushed to support the Irish government and turned the tables on London.

That is power. And for Ireland in the world, power principally runs through Brussels, not Washington. The EU’s single market and customs union are envied by small states all over the world. The European Commission, which oversees both, was partly created to ensure large member-states, such as Germany and France, could not dominate the EU.

Trump determined to destroy the EU

Donald Trump is determined to destroy the EU. He is aware of its global economic power, and he resents dealing with leaders of EU institutions who seem impervious to bullying and threats. In his meeting with Micheál Martin, Trump said he was in “a battle” with the EU and that he was going to win it.

It is no accident that President Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Elon Musk have spent so much time — and in Musk’s case money — supporting political parties and movements, including far-right extremists, who wish to dismantle the EU.

Conor McGregor, who Trump praised when asked to name his favourite Irish person, has campaigned for Ireland to leave the EU. Trump wants to peel off EU member states one by one and undermine its institutions.

The governments of two EU member states, Hungary and Slovakia, despise the current European Commission and are especially sympathetic to Trump and the Russian government. Italy’s prime minister and longtime Trump admirer Giorgia Meloni has backed the EU — for now.

But all is to play for, not least in the 2027 French presidential election, if the EU is to survive the trade and disinformation onslaught being directed against it by the government of the United States.

Ireland has tested its EU partners of late, not least due to its weak contribution to European defence and complex caveats over its support for the Ukrainian military.

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The EU is preparing for a potential attack by Russia on a member state within the next decade. It is doing so in the full understanding the post-1945 security landscape has been overturned President Trump — US security guarantees can no longer be relied upon. Ireland appears to have not yet fully appreciated this new European reality.

A single positive word by the Taoiseach about the EU in the Oval Office would have reassured our European partners that Ireland gets it, and signalled to Trump that picking off member states, even those like Ireland with close ties to the United States, may be harder than he thought.

Regrettably, that solidarity was not forthcoming. When it comes to the EU and Trump, Ireland needs to pick a side and act accordingly. Trump understands power. Nothing else will do.