By GB News (World News) | Created at 2025-03-13 10:21:35 | Updated at 2025-03-13 12:52:29
2 hours ago
Watch the extraordinary moment President Trump hits out at Ireland in front of the country’s premier.
In a room full of reporters, Trump said the country had taken advantage of America under the previous President Biden administration.
He spoke alongside a grinning Irish Taoiseach Michael Martin in the Oval Office on the day the EU announced retaliatory economic tariffs against him after the president pushed a 25 per cent tariff on all global steel and aluminium imports.
After hitting out at the bloc, Trump was asked if he feels Ireland are also taking advantage of America.
“We had stupid leaders. We had leaders who didn’t have a clue.
“All of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies, this beautiful island of five million people has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grasp.
“I have property in Ireland, as you know, and I love it. It does great, but I’d like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years, not just with Ireland, with everybody.
“For instance, when the pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland, I would have said ‘that’s OK if you want to go to Ireland, I think it’s great, but if you want to sell anything into the United States I’m going to put a 200 per cent tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell anything to the United States’.
Trump spoke alongside Michael Martin on the day the EU imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US
POOL
“You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here.”
Asked whether the Taoiseach should be concerned about his threat of more tariffs, Trump said: “He doesn’t look nervous, if he was nervous, he wouldn’t show it.”
Martin was hoping to use the Oval Office meeting to highlight a ‘two-way street’ of investment between the nations.
The Irish economy is largely sustained by its relationship with the US and Trump’s protectionist approach to tariffs and tax has sparked concern.
Europe yesterday announced ‘countermeasures’ to fight Trump’s decision to impose 25 per cent tariffs on global imports of steel and aluminium, with up to €26billion (£22billion) worth of US goods targeted.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement: “We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes, they are bad for business and worse for consumers.
“They are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy.”
Trump said during his meeting with Martin that his radical tariffs will restore fairness to US trade.
“We have been abused for a long time and we will be abused no longer”, he vowed.
