Trump raises ‘massive’ trade imbalance during Irish PM meeting

US President Donald Trump has raised a “massive” trade imbalance with Ireland and accused the European Union of treating the US “very badly”.

He made the comments during a bilateral meeting with Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin as part of the Irish government’s traditional St Patrick’s Day engagements.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Union announced it will impose counter tariffs on €26bn ($28bn) worth of US goods from next month.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said: “There’s a massive deficit that we have with Ireland… we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can, and we’ll work together.”

The EU’s move is in retaliation to President Trump’s 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports into the US, which came into effect overnight.

Trump said it had caused “ill will”.

“The European Union’s been very tough, and it’s our turn too. We get a turn at that also,” he said.

“I’m not knocking it, they are doing what they are doing for the EU, but it does create ill will and you know we are going to do reciprocal tariffs,” he added.

Martin has told President Trump that foreign investment is a two-way street, adding that Ireland is “investing a lot more in America now”.

Trump said that the EU was “set up in order to take advantage of the United States”.

When asked if Ireland was also taking advantage of the US, Trump said: “Of course.”

“I have great respect for Ireland, for what they did and they should have done just what they did. But the United States shouldn’t have let that happen. 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 grasps.”

“The Irish are smart, smart people and you took our pharmaceutical companies – and other companies – but you know, through taxation, proper taxation, they made it very, very good for companies to move up there,” he added.

Trump also said that if he drained Ireland of all the US companies “maybe I’d lose the Irish vote”.

“We don’t want to do anything to hurt Ireland, but we do want fairness and [Martin] understands that,” he added.

Earlier, the US president said he was unaware that some political parties were boycotting St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House.

Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Alliance all ruled out attending events in Washington over the Trump administration’s stance on Gaza.

When asked about the boycotts, Trump replied: “I haven’t heard that, I really haven’t heard that”.

Prior to the meeting, Martin attended a breakfast hosted by Vice-President JD Vance.

Speaking at the breakfast he said that US “has been a steadfast friend of Ireland for centuries”.

He said the peace process was a “signature achievement of US foreign policy”, adding that Ireland is “ready to play our part in supporting work to end conflict and to secure peace in the Ukraine or in the Middle East or wherever”.

Martin welcomed the “progress that has clearly been made” as a result of the Trump administration’s “unrelenting focus and effort” to secure peace.

Vance described the US-Ireland relationship as “one of the great alliances and great friendships between nations”.

He added that Ireland is a country with “incredibly community… beautiful landscape and also a lot of interesting technological growth”.

“One of the more robust areas for us to work on with our Irish friends in the years to come is going to be technology and particularly artificial intelligence,” he said.

The taoiseach was the first EU leader to return to the Oval Office since the president’s bust-up with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Discussions covered a broad range of issues, including the deep ties between the US and Ireland, shared global challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, as well as the two countries’ economic relationship.

The bilateral meeting came amid heightened concern over the future of Ireland’s economy, which is heavily reliant on US multinationals.

Trump sees this as a trade imbalance and is keen to entice those companies back to the US.

However, Martin said he would use his visit to the Oval Office to highlight an “increasingly two-way” trade and investment relationship.

“Ireland is the sixth-largest source of foreign direct investment in the US, supporting hundreds and thousands of jobs across the US,” he said.

“This substantial investment underscores the commitment of Irish enterprises to the US market and reflects a deepening economic interdependence between the two countries.”

The meeting is also an opportunity for the taoiseach to update Trump on the situation in Northern Ireland, recognising the huge contribution the US has made to securing peace.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill will not be heading to the White House as she is boycotting the St Patrick’s Day festivities there due to Trump’s stance on Gaza.

However, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly will be at the White House reception on Wednesday and is likely to meet Trump.

The two executive ministers led a delegation to North Carolina earlier in the week alongside representatives from Queen’s University Belfast, Invest NI, Catalyst and Software NI.

NI Chamber CEO Suzanne Wylie said the visit was part of a long-term process and they would be inviting a trade mission back to Northern Ireland in the summer from North Carolina.

However, there has been more geopolitical uncertainty this year than last year, including President Trump’s introduction of some tariffs.

She said that while there was uncertainty across the globe right now, “businesses really just want to create the relationships and get on with doing business with each other and continue to look for further investment in some of our innovative companies”.

Speaking to BBC News NI ahead of the meeting between Trump and Martin, Democrat member of the House of Representatives Brendan Boyle said that “what the Trump administration is doing with respect to tariffs makes no economic sense, and it makes no sense in terms of our national security”.

Boyle said that imposing tariffs on Canada suggests that no country is “safe fully from this sort of madness”, including Ireland.

He added that Martin should “remind President Trump that Ireland, despite its small size, is one of the largest investors in the United States and one of the largest job creators in the United States”.

“On the one hand, [Trump] likes to say, you know, we’re the best, he’s the best, He’s the greatest. Everything is a superlative.

“But then in the next breath, he says, we’re suckers, we’re losers, we’re being taken advantage of by every other country.”

Boyle said that Ireland “punches well above its weight” in terms of investment in the United states, and reminding Trump of that “would go a long way”.