The notorious dressing-down of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the White House in February 2025 has solidified into a sort of behavioural coda for all heads of state entering the bear pit of the Trump Oval Office.
The message was made clear to all visiting dignitaries that day: you don’t have the cards, you listen more than you speak. And when you speak, best say only nice things.
You enter US president Donald Trump’s orbit, which is to perform a limited cameo role – with few lines – in the rolling reality television show that is the 47th presidency.
None of us is clairvoyant, so future events will dictate how this period of diplomatic subservience by all heads of state towards a belligerent US president will be judged in years and decades to come.
READ MORE
For Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the task on this St Patrick’s Day remains much the same as it did a year ago. He has indicated that his primary objective is to impress upon the administration the historical Irish-American bonds, along with the buoyant economic partnership.
He will probably remind his host – again – that the Republic is the fifth-biggest investor in the US economy.
But this is not the kind of statistic or conversation to make Trump’s eyes light up.
There will be talk of golf, and possibly Conor McGregor – the only Irish man to appear in the Oval Office on St Patrick’s Day last year. (Martin met Trump on March 12th for their 2025 annual meeting.)
Trump’s knowledge of Ireland is superficial, but he is hazily well-disposed to the country, insofar as he ever thinks about it.
The Republic has benefited from the deft and personable relationships cultivated with the current administration by our Ambassador to the United States, Geraldine Byrne-Nason.
It’s obvious that the symbiotic relationship between the Trump family and Doonbeg has not hurt, and also entirely possible that the importance of Dorothy Curry and Bridie Carroll, the Irish nannies who were instrumental in raising the Trump children, has been worth years of official diplomacy.
The pointed observations by Trump cabinet members Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent about the Irish-US trade imbalance have receded for now.
So, the mood music is good.
What could sabotage Martin’s Oval Office cameo?
He is a sure-footed master of cautious platitudes in this situation. Any disaster is unlikely to occur from any error of his own. However, a pointed question, thrown out by the visiting Irish media delegation in the free-for-all forum favoured by the US president, could trigger Trump’s go-to irritants and take the conversation into volatile territory.
Immigration, tariffs, the Irish-US trade imbalance and the State’s reputation as a vociferous pro-Palestinian voice are all subjects that might lead to squeamish moments for Martin when he faces the uncomfortable choice of either contradicting Trump while in full flow and dealing with the consequences, or sucking it up in humiliating silence.
Unlike a year ago, Tuesday’s meeting coincides with a moment of acute crisis for the US administration. The Iranian war, deaths of a further six US service members, rising fuel and food prices and the partial government shutdown are subjects on which the White House press corps will seek to engage Trump.
Because of that, Martin’s hour in the Oval Office may pass more quickly. Anything he may have to say, as Taoiseach, about the subject of Gaza, deaths of the 168 Iranian schoolgirls or the importance of international law will be politely expressed in private or buried deep in his speech during the East Room shamrock ceremony when the day is almost done.
Much is made about the Republic’s special access to the White House and the willing indulgence of a long line of US administrations regarding the State’s national day. All true, but it should be noted that in the Trump White House, heads of state roll through like customers in a busy Starbucks; Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi is here on Thursday.
By then, if things have gone to plan, the fabled bowl of shamrock will be somewhere in the White House, starting to wilt and likely half forgotten.
