By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Wednesday, with Trump’s trade policies and the conflict in Gaza among the potential topics of conversation.
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. Recent meetings were with Trump’s proudly Irish-American Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
But Tuesday’s meetings come 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 U.S.-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 U.S. He has also threatened 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.
On foreign policy, the stances that Ireland and the United States have adopted on the conflict in Gaza are at odds.
Trump has resumed his close alliance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since taking office in January, and he has said that all Palestinians should be removed from Gaza, at least temporarily, following a peace deal.
In December, Israel announced it would close its embassy in Ireland, citing the country’s “anti-Israel policies.” Among the moves Ireland has made that have upset Israel was one in May to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
The Ukraine war may also be a topic of conversation. Martin’s visit is the first by a foreign leader since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s late February meeting with Trump at the White House devolved into a heated argument. On Tuesday, however, the United States agreed to resume military aid to Ukraine after talks where Kyiv said it would accept a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Russia.
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.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is set to host Martin at the vice presidential residence for a breakfast. Martin has events later in the day on Capitol Hill and the White House with Trump and lawmakers.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Leslie Adler)
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