He repeated his comment that Starmer was “no Winston Churchill”, referencing the UK’s most famous war leader.
Trump also said he was “disappointed” in the prime minister, adding he had not “been supportive” of the US in the Middle East and accusing him of making a “big mistake” on Iran.
Martin, who just last Friday hosted Starmer in his home town of Cork for a UK-Ireland summit, was quick to defend his colleague across the Irish Sea.
“Churchill was a great wartime leader, although in Ireland, it was kind of a different perspective in terms of the War of Independence,” he said.
“He created his own bit of difficulties for us.”
There was another potential flashpoint when Martin responded to comments from the president that the UK and other European countries had allowed “millions and millions of people to come into your country that shouldn’t be there”.
The taoiseach said “Europe is still a very good place to live”, adding that Europe was sometimes “characterised wrongly in terms of it being overrun”.
He said no-one was in favour of illegal immigration and that Ireland’s population was growing “but in a very positive way” due to the economy attracting people to work legally.