US President Donald Trump welcomed Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Wednesday for the annual St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House, where he added Ireland to the list of countries he says take advantage of the United States, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
Martin countered by noting Ireland's contribution to the American economy.
It was Trump's first conversation with a foreign leader in the Oval Office since his ill-fated meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, which ended with the Ukrainian president being asked to leave the White House, the AP notes.
Irish Prime Minister Michail Martin, who only delicately objected to some of Trump's comments, returned to the White House in the evening and presented him with a bowl of shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day. The two also attended the annual Capitol luncheon.
Trump's banter during the Oval Office meeting also touched on Vice President J.D. Vance's shamrock-themed socks and American actress Rosie O'Donnell's recent move to Ireland over Trump's election and policies.
The Republican president has clashed with both allies and adversaries on trade, imposing double-digit tariffs on imports from countries from Canada to China, the AP notes. During the meeting with the Irish prime minister, Trump repeated his claim that the European Union was created just to make trouble for the United States.
When asked if Ireland, an EU member, also benefited, Trump replied: "Of course it does." "I have great respect for Ireland and what they did, and they should have done exactly what they did, but the United States should not have allowed that to happen."
Trump was referring to the concentration of American pharmaceutical companies in Ireland due to the country's tax policies, the AP explained.
"We had stupid leaders. We had leaders who had no idea or were not businessmen, but had no idea what was going on, and suddenly Ireland got our pharmaceutical companies," Trump said.
Martin countered that trade relations were a "two-way street," adding that Ireland's two largest airlines buy more planes from Boeing than any other outside America.
More than 700 Irish companies are also based in America, creating thousands of jobs, the prime minister said. "It's a little-known fact that doesn't appear in the statistics," he added.