Defends Starmer....

Ireland’s leader defends Starmer from Trump insults in White House meeting

Micheál Martin avoided the trap that snared Germany’s chancellor by politely pushing back as Donald Trump slammed Keir Starmer, NATO and migration to Europe.

By Shawn Pogatchnik

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has finally found a friendly voice in the White House— albeit one that speaks with an Irish accent.

When Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the U.S. presidential mansion on Tuesday for St. Patrick’s Day, Donald Trump took the opportunity at their joint press conference to renew his verbal attacks on Starmer over the U.K. leader’s unwillingness to join the U.S.-Israeli air assault on Iran. Referencing a bust over his shoulder of Britain’s World War II leader, the president repeated his insult that Starmer “is no Winston Churchill.”

The ultra-diplomatic and soft-spoken Martin picked that moment to interrupt a nearly 20-minute monologue from Trump bashing Iran and NATO.

Martin noted that he had just hosted a productive summit with Starmer and other senior U.K. ministers in his home city, Cork. He credited the Labour leader with doing much to repair Anglo-Irish relations ravaged by Brexit. And he gently reminded Trump that not so long ago, he had been singing Starmer’s praises.

“Keir Starmer has done a lot to reset the Irish-British relationship. I just want to put that on the record,” Martin told Trump, a crystal bowl filled with shamrock on the table between them. “I do believe that he’s a very earnest, sound person that you have a capacity to get along with. You’ve got along with him before.”

Martin then pivoted to criticism of Iran in the hope of averting a hostile comeback from his host. It appeared to work, as Trump resumed bashing NATO — and didn’t utter a single syllable critical of Ireland, which doesn’t even belong to the transatlantic military alliance.

Irish officials confirmed to POLITICO that Martin had been determined not to repeat the perceived mistake of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz when he visited the White House earlier this month. Merz failed to defend Starmer and other European allies when Trump belittled them in similar terms, drawing sharp rebukes from the Spanish government.

Martin pulled off a second display of polite pushback on Tuesday after Trump repeated claims that Europe was threatened by immigration: “It’s a different place. Bad things have happened to Europe.”

Martin tapped Trump on the thigh to get his attention.

“Europe is still a very good place to live,” Martin said, prompting laughter in the room as Trump retorted: “I’m glad to hear that!”

Martin then expanded on why Europe is so popular with migrants, noting the EU’s “free mobility of people” and how it allows Ireland to attract newcomers “from Europe and beyond” to swell its rapidly growing workforce.

“Fundamentally, sometimes Europe gets characterized wrongly in terms of it being overrun,” he said in apparent reference to claims the Trump administration has made, including in the president’s sit-down interview with POLITICO last December.

The visiting Irish press pack, perhaps disappointed to have no anti-Irish comments from Trump, twice tried to ask him about Irish President Catherine Connolly’s recent condemnations of the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran.

Connolly — elected in October on an anti-government mandate — is a largely ceremonial head of state who plays no role in Ireland’s government.

But Trump made it clear he had no clue who Connolly might be, far less her criticisms.

“Who said that?” Trump asked a reporter, only to be told, without reference to Connolly’s gender, that it was Ireland’s president.

“Look. He’s lucky I exist, that’s all I can say,” Trump said.