roots dating back <\/a>to the 1950s and was cemented as a regular occurrence in the ’90s. This year, it came as U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that launched an ongoing conflict in the nation and Trump\u2019s fresh criticisms of NATO allies for rejecting his ask to help secure a key waterway for oil dominated much of the global conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe pair kicked off their festivities together with a sit-down in the Oval Office, chatting about the large Irish population in America and the number of former U.S. presidents \u2013 nearly two dozen \u2013 with Irish ancestry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martin specifically pointed to former presidents Ronald Reagan, a Republican, and John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, to which Trump remarked: \u201cWe like the family too \u2013 one person in particular,\u201d in an apparent reference to his Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The more than two-week-old war in Iran and Trump\u2019s disappointment \u2013 as he repeatedly put it \u2013 with NATO allies for not jumping to assist with safeguarding the Strait of Hormuz then took over much of the back-and-forth with reporters. The president lamented European countries in the military alliance for not helping and left the door open to pulling the U.S. out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The leader of Ireland \u2013 which is a member country in the European Union but not in NATO \u2013 appeared to try to smooth tensions, saying \u201cthe transatlantic relationship between Europe and the U.S. is very, very important.\u201d He also told Trump he has the \u201ccapacity\u201d to get along with leaders on the continent.<\/p>\n
On the war, Martin agreed with Trump on the notion that Iran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and noted Ireland, along with Europe more broadly, sanctioned the country. But he also stressed the need to move toward a \u201cpeaceful resolution of conflict\u201d and said \u201cour hearts go to the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point, Trump\u2019s criticisms turned to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in particular. He called him a \u201cvery nice man with a beautiful family\u201d but denounced what he said was the British leader\u2019s lack of support for Trump\u2019s war effort in Iran and specifically for not sending minesweepers \u2013 a ship used to remove naval mines \u2013 to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. Trump also reiterated his longstanding criticisms of Starmer and other European leaders more broadly for their approaches to the issues of immigration and energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martin stepped in to say he just met with Starmer last week and noted the importance of the British-Irish relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKeir Starmer has done a lot to reset the Irish-British relationship,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI just want to put that on the record.\u201d<\/p>\n
After their White House meeting, the pair traveled to the other end of Pennsylvania Ave for the Friends of Ireland Luncheon at the Capitol, an annual tradition spearheaded by Reagan and former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill in the 1980s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martin is also set to present Trump with a bowl of shamrocks back at the White House Tuesday afternoon in keeping with the annual festivities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Irish leader started his day of celebrations in Washington attending a breakfast hosted by Vice President JD Vance at his residence. Vance, who joined Trump in sporting a green tie for the day, told attendees that the event was one of his favorite traditions the U.S. vice president takes part in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0President Donald Trump and Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin praised ties between the U.S. and Ireland as they took…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[32134,32140,32137,123687,32135,17452,42,399,168428,43,32189,40,38,41,39,32138],"class_list":["post-344595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","tag-app-dc-bureau","tag-app-for-your-consideration","tag-app-international","tag-app-national-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-headlines","tag-international","tag-maddie-gannon","tag-news","tag-nnt","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-washington-dc-bureau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}