{"id":482174,"date":"2026-03-18T12:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/482174\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:53:10","slug":"donald-trump-doubles-down-on-keir-starmer-criticism-as-micheal-martin-boxes-clever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/482174\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump doubles down on Keir Starmer criticism as Miche\u00e1l Martin boxes clever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After 40 minutes of intense questioning alongside the most unpredictable of presidents, Martin was relieved to escape unscathed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was a bout he did not win but also did not lose &#8211; and his performance received a mixed response among some in the UK and Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a post on X, former cabinet minister Rory Stewart praised Martin for speaking &#8220;fluently and diplomatically  &#8211; while also standing up for values, peace and European allies&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former Irish Ambassador to the US Dan Mulhall told Irish national broadcaster RT\u00c9 that the taoiseach fared &#8220;well&#8221; in not damaging the economic ties between Ireland and the US in the meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think overall you could say, we got through a difficult day on a difficult course and the taoiseach came home fairly well, without any bruises on his body,&#8221; he said on RT\u00c9&#8217;s Morning Ireland programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Social Democrat leader Holly Cairns said the meeting between the Martin and Trump was a &#8220;missed opportunity&#8221;, saying the Irish leader was &#8220;almost entirely mute&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cairns said the only person Martin strongly defended was the UK&#8217;s prime minister as he &#8220;made a point of attempting to firmly rebuff some of Trump&#8217;s attacks on him&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;However, when Trump mistakenly thought our own president was a man, Miche\u00e1l Martin failed to correct the record,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She said inviting Trump to Ireland would be &#8220;outrageous&#8221; and that the Irish people &#8220;do not want a red carpet to be rolled out for an American president who is dismantling international law and institutions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sinn F\u00e9in, who boycotted events in the White House last year and again this year, said Martin &#8220;wasted a unique opportunity&#8221; to defend international law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Instead, he stayed silent on the need to respect international law, failed to mention the ongoing genocide in Gaza or the United States&#8217; and Israel&#8217;s attacks on Iranian civilians,&#8221; said Donnchadh \u00d3 Laoghaire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 40 minutes of intense questioning alongside the most unpredictable of presidents, Martin was relieved to escape unscathed.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-482174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}