US media reaction to the visit of Taoiseach Micheál Martin to the White House was mostly one of relief that there was no repeat of the now infamous Volodymyr Zelenskiy humiliation.
The New York Times noted that Mr Martin “largely took a back seat during the meeting”. It offered three takeaways from the encounter.
The first was that US president Donald Trump was not going to change course on tariffs despite reservations from the business community.
The second was that Mr Martin had learned lesson from the Zelenskiy meeting and noted he “tried to avoid discord at every turn”.
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The New York Times also noted that Mr Trump was not “particularly enthused” by the Taoiseach’s argument that Irish companies were investing heavily in the United States.
The third takeaway was that Mr Trump used the meeting to return to his favourite subjects: “golf, fighters and feuds”.
The Washington Post report was mostly negative, noting that “after a brief exchange of pleasantries Trump proceeded to bash Ireland and the European Union for tariffs and tax policies that he blamed for hurting the United States – an on-camera dressing-down that gave Martin little opportunity for a confidential appeal, nor much chance to get a word in edgewise.”
The newspaper though noted that Mr Trump showed a grudging admiration for how Ireland had managed to attract so many American multinationals to the country.
Most American mainstream newspapers carried the syndicated Associated Press report which stated that Mr Martin “offered only gentle pushback to some of Trump’s comments”.
The AP report continued: “The Republican president has been sparring with US allies and adversaries alike over trade, slapping double-digit tariffs on imports from countries from Canada to China and in between. During the appearance with Martin, Trump repeated his claim that the European Union was created just to stick it to the US.”
Fox News, the president’s go-to channel, mangled Mr Martin’s first name – pronouncing it Miguel, like the Spanish version of the name Michael.
Fox News correspondent Alexandria Hoff noted Mr Trump’s comments about Ireland taking advantage of the United States economically but also added that it was an example of “prior US leadership dropping the ball”.
Over on The Five, Fox News’s conservative panel discussion, they were more preoccupied by the brief exchange about the American actress Rosie O’Donnell who fled to Ireland after Mr Trump’s re-election.
The panel were amused that the Taoiseach did not seem to know who she is – O’Donnell has been a bête noire among American conservatives for many years and the feeling is mutual.
Commentator Greg Gutfield said O’Donnell’s stock had fallen so far as she has ended up “in the land of the potato”. He speculated that she is leaving the US because she “nobody likes her”.
Jeanine Pirro chimed in: “I don’t know why she chose Ireland. Maybe it’s because of the potatoes. She is suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Maybe she needs to be deprogrammed.”
The panel, though, paid her a backhand complement stating that, unlike other celebrities who threatened to leave if Mr Trump was re-elected, she actually followed through with her promise.
