So Micheál Martin entered into the lion’s den and emerged, if not quite unscathed, then at least alive and kicking.
Through 50 minutes or so of a rambling, rolling press “spray” (as the Americans call it) in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Martin sat beside Donald Trump as the US president rollicked through familiar themes – the unfairness of the European Union, how the US is being shafted by its allies, the uselessness of Joe Biden and the Democrats, the terrible war in Ukraine and, most of all perhaps, what a great job he is doing.
Trump did most of the talking, of course. Martin sat beside him smiling and nodding, struggling to interject occasionally. Everyone might have been wearing green for St Patrick’s Day, but there was no mistaking it – this was the Donald’s show.
The Oval Office spray had been identified as the point of maximum danger by Martin’s officials in the weeks since the mauling of Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The unpredictable nature of the event has been giving them nightmares. What would Trump say? Would there be planted questions from the White House press corps? Would vice-president JD Vance get involved?
Jack Crowley set to start for Ireland in Rome as Leicester Tigers eye up Munster outhalf
Taoiseach can’t disguise the fact that he’d say anything to keep shamrocks flying high in Trumpland
Rosie O’Donnell moving to Ireland to escape Trump administration
Fiona McHugh, former Sunday Times Ireland editor and Fallon & Byrne co-founder, dies aged 57
These were reasonable questions and real fears. With the EU announcing its response to US tariffs, the inescapable point was that Martin was in the Oval Office just as what may very well turn out to be the first shots in a trade war were being fired across the Atlantic. He was an EU leader and the EU is in Trump’s sights.
Irish fears of a difficult day in DC were heightened a day earlier when the family of teacher Enoch Burke was spotted on a plane to Washington. Elon Musk had previously tweeted supportively – was there some class of an ambush in prospect?
Nothing of the sort, actually. The Burkes stood as near as they could get to the White House – a couple of hundred yards – with placards advertising their protest, but no discernible impact on proceedings.
Inside the building, when the two leaders faced the press in a crammed Oval Office, the chummy atmosphere established when the Taoiseach met the vice-president for breakfast earlier was continued.
Vance, who had changed the course of the Zelenskiy meeting with his interjections, stayed quietly on the couch; a question from the reporter whose criticisms of the Ukrainian leader’s attire had struck such a chord with the US side, he prefaced his soft question by complimenting the Taoiseach for his suit. Many of the more serious questions were about Ukraine and other issues on which the Taoiseach went unconsulted.
At times it seemed that Martin was ready to jump in, but then thought better of it. The Zelenskiy encounter has changed the nature of these events and even when it became clear that Trump was not going attack Ireland, there was still a tension in the air. The strain on the face of Martin’s advisers was clear.
Martin survives his close encounter of the Trump kind
Trump praised Martin and said lots of warm words about Ireland – though some of them in a backhanded sort of way, implying that Ireland had basically stolen America’s pharmaceutical industry in a coup that Trump grudgingly had to admire (the further implication was that he wanted it back).
Trump repeatedly and pointedly criticised the EU. But he displayed no hostility towards Ireland; if anything, quite the opposite. That must class as some sort of a result.
Martin clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valour, avoiding any clash with Trump that might derail the encounter. He jumped in occasionally to defend the two-way nature of the economic relationship, with Ryanair and AerCap getting the expected mention.
The Taoiseach deflected a question about the Israel-Hamas conflict by stressing the need for a ceasefire, release of the hostages – referencing his own visit to Israel after the October 7th, 2023, attacks – and the surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza. None of his interventions caused any pushback from the US side.
Inevitably, there will be criticism of Martin for his failure to take on the US president on a range of issues, from Gaza to Ukraine, from tariffs to trade. But that was never likely to happen.
Martin’s priority was to maintain good relations and avoid a row with the most powerful man in the world – even if he wanted one. From his perspective, that’s understandable. And it is hard to see how the interests of the country would be served by provoking a row with the vindictive Trump.
So Martin was willing to sit in silence, nodding and smiling, looking perhaps a little supine while his host ran the show. For Martin’s detractors, he sat idly and let Trump go on unchallenged. For his supporters, he managed a potentially difficult situation with a display of grown-up, selfless politics.
Whatever your take on it, both the country and its leader have emerged without any significant damage. A visit to the Trump White House can end very differently.
