Will the Trump White House scale back St. Patrick’s Day events?

Reports are circulating that the new Trump administration could scale back the annual St. Patrick’s Day events at the White House, which typically sees Irish politicians granted unparalleled access to the US administration.

"Republicans [in the US] are struggling to see what they are getting out of St. Patrick’s Day," one diplomatic source told the Irish Mail on Sunday this week.

"They don’t see anything, not even a photograph.

"The likelihood is that St. Patrick’s Day will be saved but it will, if not this year certainly next year, have its wings significantly clipped.

"The old days of starting in the National Observatory at 6 am with the Vice President, then the bowl of shamrock and the Speaker’s dinner in the Capitol and all the other dinners where we take over Washington for an entire day, is under real threat."

March 12, 2020: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Vice President Mike Pence at the Vice President’s Residence in Washington, DC. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

The source further told the Irish Mail on Sunday: "It will be reduced to a quick in and out, a photo with the President and out. There will be no chats with the President besides a logfire. It will be functional and cold."

March 19, 2018: US President Donald Trump and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the White House. (Shealah Craighead / White House Flickr)

One diplomatic source warned to the Irish Mail on Sunday: "There is a deep freeze in terms of how the [Trump] administration views us.

"There is no Irish lobby, that belongs to the past.

"The Kennedys, the Tip O’Neills, the Clintons, and the Bidens; all that belongs to the history books now."

March 15, 2024: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Joe Biden in the White House.

The concerns about St. Patrick's Day at the White House are emerging in the wake of the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States on January 20. It is Trump's second term in office, having previously served from 2016 through 2020.

During his first term, Trump continued the tradition of hosting St. Patrick's Day engagements. (In 2020, however, the events were nixed last minute as Covid took hold globally.)

March 16, 2017: President Donald Trump with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the White House. (White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Now, however, as Trump moves aggressively to put "America First" during his second term in the Oval Office, there are a number of factors that are threatening the annual events. 

"America will no longer be beholden to foreign organizations for our national tax policy, which punishes American businesses," Trump said in a memo last week outlining his priorities. 

Among the many executive orders he signed on his first day, Trump ordered that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Global Tax Deal "has no force or effect in the United States."

Ireland signed onto the two-part deal in 2021. Trump's order last week is believed to be aimed at 'Pillar 2' of the deal, which sets the minimum effective rate for multinationals with annual revenue in excess of €750 million at 15%.

As the Irish Times noted, "As we rely on the US for the vast bulk of our foreign direct investment, this is a big issue for Ireland."

Trump also signed an executive order that says "no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States."

RTE News reported on Monday that this executive order could impact The International Fund for Ireland (IFI), which supports cross-community projects in Northern Ireland and southern border counties. Last year, the US contributed $4m (€3.8m) to the IFI, and has contributed more than half a billion since the fund's inception.

There is also the matter of the US and Ireland's contrasting views on the situation in Gaza. Last week, BusinessPlus.ie reported that Ireland's new Government would move to "appease the incoming Trump administration by shelving the Occupied Territories Bill" amid fears that the legislation would "damage Ireland's corporate and diplomatic relations with the US."

A source told the Irish Mail on Sunday this week: "Ireland is seen to have made unfriendly decisions on its own volition. It’s a bit late now to be on the retreat when it comes to the Occupied Territories Bill. It counts for nothing."

Another source warned: "There is a huge Jewish lobby in America, and they are very Republican. They see the Occupied Territories Bill as a stab in the back."

However, despite the speculation that St. Patrick's Day at the White House could be scaled back, the Irish Government is preparing to send a larger number of senior ministers stateside this year "in an attempt to lovebomb the new Trump administration," Irish publication The Journal reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, an online petition urging politicians on the island of Ireland to "not go to Washington on St. Patrick's Day to shake hands soaked with the blood of Palestinians" has drawn more than 940 signatures in less than a week. Similar petitions circulated last year.