Donald Trump should pay a State visit to Ireland and become the fifth US president to address the Oireachtas, Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris has told Extra.ie.
In an interview with Extra.ie in Philadelphia yesterday, Mr Harris insisted it would be ‘mutually beneficial’ that full State honours be bestowed on President Trump when he visits the country.
Four of the US president’s predecessors have addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas, and the Government has noted how Mr Trump was deeply moved by the red-carpet treatment he was previously afforded by the UK’s late Queen Elizabeth and French president Emmanuel Macron.
During his visit to Washington this week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said President Trump is ‘always welcome’ here and that the Irish delegation ‘would be engaging’ with his administration on a potential visit to Ireland.
And Minister Harris, who is likely to be Taoiseach by the time President Trump visits, yesterday told Extra.ie: ‘If President Trump does decide to come to Ireland and accept the invitation, of course, having an opportunity to engage in the Dáil and address the Dáil could well be useful, and has been in the past.’
Despite rising anti-Trump sentiment here and across Europe in the wake of the US administration’s upending of traditional transatlantic alliances and threats of crippling tariffs, Mr Harris said Ireland should do anything it can to reinforce a strong ‘personal relationship’ with the US president.
‘MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL’
The Tánaiste said: ‘Being honest, I think it [personal relations] particularly matters with this president. He’s a president who likes to get to know the people that he’s dealing with. And therefore, I think visiting Ireland for a State visit is something that could be mutually beneficial.’
Speaking to Extra.ie from his hotel in downtown Philadelphia, Mr Harris was unequivocal when asked if he favoured a State visit by the US president when he becomes leader of the country as part of the ‘rotating taoiseach’ arrangement between the two main Government parties.
Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris. Credit: RollingNews.ie
Mr Harris, who will become Taoiseach again in late 2027, replied: ‘Yes, I think any US president is always welcome in Ireland, and State visits can be useful.’
Trump administration sources who spoke to Extra.ie at the White House this week said the US president would ‘look very favourably upon any invitation to address your parliament when he visits.’
During Mr Trump’s brief stopover visit to Ireland in June 2019 en route to Europe to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the US president told those gathered at a dinner at his Doonbeg International Golf Links and Hotel – attended by Extra.ie – of his ‘deep gratitude’ for the hospitality afforded to him by the late Queen Elizabeth.
The mercurial president was also reportedly moved by a State visit to France, replete with military parades, which Mr Harris also appears to have noted.
‘BUILDING PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS MATTERS’
The Tánaiste told the Extra.ie: ‘If you look at how President Macron engaged very well with President Trump in the first Trump administration… keep in mind keeping the communication open and building personal relationships matters in politics.
‘It’s always better to engage. The people of the United States have elected the person they want to be their president, and if and when he comes to Ireland, I think it could well be useful for him to have a chance to address the Dáil.’
It is in the government of the day’s gift to offer an official State visit to Ireland. While Mr Harris pointed out that the correct protocol for an invitation to a US president to address a Joint Sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas is down to the Ceann Comhairle, it is accepted it will happen if this is the Government’s wish.
Mr Harris – whose portfolio now encompasses trade – also believes a State visit would strengthen economic ties, the main purpose of his diplomatic mission to Philadelphia and New York.
‘It’s also something that will give us an opportunity to drive home the message that we’re trying to make here this week, that the relationship is two-way and actually an opportunity to demonstrate, in a very real way, by meeting Irish companies and showcasing Irish businesses, that we are creating lots and lots of jobs.’
He said the fact that Ryanair is US aircraft giant Boeing’s biggest European customer ‘is powerful’, and that Ireland, ‘a country of 5.6 million… [is] creating over 200,000 jobs in the United States of America and is the sixth largest foreign direct investor into the United States.’
‘VERY, VERY SPECIAL MAN’
Mr Harris moves on to New York tomorrow, where he will participate in the famed St Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue.
Mr Harris also noted the absence of Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald from events in Washington, and the fact that President Trump didn’t even know that she was not there.
‘I think the Taoiseach handled the meeting very well. These engagements are always important because it’s always really important to keep the lines of communication open.
‘And we are one of the few, if not the only, country in the world that has our annual day in the Oval Office, regardless of the president of the day. That is a really, really, really important opportunity, and we shouldn’t take it for granted.’
He also said that Sinn Féin made a strategic mistake by boycotting the Washington events.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. Credit: RollingNews.ie
‘WASN’T IN OUR NATIONAL INTEREST’
‘I think the Shinners choosing not to show up, and the fact that it hadn’t even registered with President Trump, it shows what we knew – it was a stunt.
‘It wasn’t in our national interest. You know, the easiest thing to do is sit at home and take the day off. It’s much harder to actually turn up, particularly turning up where there are points of disagreement and trying to navigate that way forward. But that’s what politics is about. That’s what we’re paid to do. And I think it was a strategic error, not in the national interest, for Sinn Féin not to turn up.’
Mr Trump told the Taoiseach this week that he will visit his Co Clare Doonbeg estate during his presidential term, which ends in 2029.
Mr Martin has yet to extend an official invitation for a State visit to the US president.
But Mr Harris said he is confident from his personal interaction with Mr Trump that he would accept full State honours.
The Tánaiste told Extra.ie: ‘I had the honour of speaking to President Trump, when he was president-elect Trump in November, when he had just won the election, to congratulate him. And on that call, he made it very clear to me that he did want to visit Ireland, that he thinks fondly of Ireland, that he knows Ireland well, and that he obviously has business interests in Ireland.
‘VERY PROUD’
‘He’s very proud of the fact that he’s the first US president to have directly invested his own money in Ireland, in his business.’
John F Kennedy was the first US president to address a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas in 1963. Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden have also been extended the honour.
The White House. Credit: Getty Images
President Trump will be conscious that the current ratio is three Democrats to one Republican, and will be anxious to boost the Irish-American vote late in his term to help his successor, most likely his Vice President JD Vance.
Mr Harris, who undertook a series of political, business and community engagements as part of his St Patrick’s programme in Philadelphia yesterday, also stressed the Government’s approach in expressing support for Ukraine in its interactions with President Trump and his administration is the correct one and will continue.
‘I spoke to President Trump in November… he made it very clear to me that he doesn’t like war, he wants to see peace,’ the Tánaiste added.
‘He wanted to see peace in the Middle East, and he wanted to see peace in Ukraine. And I respect that. And I respect, perhaps, he has an ability to be a disrupter in terms of getting people around the table.
‘But – and there is a big but here – how you bring about peace does matter.
‘And I suppose one of the points that I’d be making here is, while welcoming the fact that the president is trying to bring peace, this is a European security issue as well. And you know, we just need to be very careful here that aggressors can’t be rewarded,’ he said.
* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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