“A very good defensive boxer,” was Micheál Martin’s assessment of his own father’s pugilistic style, offered as a nearly-hour long exchange in the Oval Office with US President Donald Trump rumbled on. The Taoiseach needed those skills on Wednesday afternoon as his host rained down blows on Ireland’s economic model and the European Union. He stayed alive, counterpunched diplomatically, and made it out of the ring in one piece - but those flurries made a mark.
How did Martin do? You could say he grew into the fight. From the off, Trump rose to questions about tariffs, trade and Ireland’s success at luring US companies to our shores.
The framing was one of grudging respect for Ireland’s achievements - but it was an assessment rooted in Trump’s most enduring preoccupation, of global trade as a zero-sum, beggar-thy-neighbour game in which there are winners and losers. And if Ireland was winning, that meant someone was losing - and that someone was the United States, led astray by foolish ex-presidents, in the incumbent’s telling.
It was excruciating for periods, as Trump unspooled his familiar criticisms and Martin sat largely quiet, having to wait for an opening. It was also about what might have been expected: Trump is hardly a model of consistency, but on this, he has been the same for decades.
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Any hope that Trump might bend to diplomatic niceties and skirt around his favourite pecadillo proved ill-founded as he freewheeled through the unfairness of EU trading practices, the “massive” deficit with Ireland, how the country “took” pharma companies away. Unsurprisingly, he promised retaliation against Europe, and if Ireland got caught up in it - well, sorry. “We don’t want to hurt Ireland,” he said. The unspoken subtext was: and yet, Ireland might get hurt.
Martin rallied and managed to pivot to his talking points on Ireland’s economic model and other matters - although he was too eager to chuckle along at Trump’s assessment of the housing crisis, and Sinn Féin are already targeting him over it.
As the questions continued, he was skillful especially on Gaza. His answer, majoring on the release of Israeli hostages and his own visit to see the raided villages of October 7th was exceptionally well-judged. He hardly rallied to the defence of Europe as Trump targeted the bloc, despite invocations from Brussels as recently as this morning, preferring by and large to leave Trump at it.
He seemed to reason that leaving Trump to recite his greatest hits was the lowest-risk strategy, even if it involved the unpalatable prospect of sitting back at points. It was a reverse-Macron - the French President successfully curbed Trump through charm, but challenging him head-on also invites a Volodymyr Zelenskiy style fallout. Footage of Trump railing against the EU is unlikely to live long in the memory, but an overt clash between an EU head of government and the US President would be hard to forget.
Does it matter? There was no single moment that will derail US-Irish relations or need to be repaired. Domestically, he will face criticism for being overly chummy, but nothing immediately presents as a major failing. So, he made it through. But if you were looking for evidence that Ireland could cleverly sidestep its way out of the brewing transatlantic bout, it was thin on the ground.
