Trump news: US President stops in Shannon airport for meeting with Irish PM Leo Varadkar after D-Day celebrations
Mr Trump's Ireland visit includes golfing at a resort of his
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has arrived in Ireland, having attended a D-Day memorial event in Portsmouth with the Queen and other world leaders. He then headed off to play golf at his club in Doonbeg.
Prime Minister Theresa May had hosted 15 world leaders to honour the largest combined land, air and naval operation in history, with Mr Trump also holding a brief "pull-aside" meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Mr Trump, who met Conservative leadership candidate Michael Gove on Monday it has been revealed, has faced criticism over his claims that “big crowds” turned out to support him on his state visit while organised protests against him flopped, in the face of images appearing to showing thousands of people opposing him.
The visit to Ireland follows after Mr Trump's second state visit to London, where he was met with considerable protest — and then denied that protest was happening.
The US president met with the Queen and other dignitaries for a state banquet on Tuesday evening, with everyone dressed to impress at the formal dinner.
Mr Trump's visit to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day, while serious, also did not stop him from sending off some questionable tweets during the trip.
He will soon return to the US, where controversy in Washington has developed over the past week since he announced potential tariffs on Mexican goods.
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(Dan Kitwood/Getty)
Donald Trump read from a prayer delivered by President Franklin D Roosevelt as he joined other world leaders and veterans to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Roosevelt went on national radio on 6 June, 1944, to address the US for the first time about the Normandy invasion.
Mr Trump, with images of an American flag and Roosevelt projected behind him, read to the crowd: “Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day, have set upon a mighty endeavour, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilisation and to set free a suffering humanity.”
Asked about his plans, Mr Trump said: “We’ll be going there (Doonbeg) and as you know I am making a trip tomorrow to Normandy.
“We had an incredible time today, this was something that the likes of which few people have seen anything like it, we were with the Queen and the Royal Family, and we were with the prime minister, it was something very special, it was very well covered, it was truly beautiful.
“Tomorrow we go to Normandy and I’ll be leaving from Doonbeg, I am staying here overnight, and I thought this would be the best place to come to in Ireland and stay at Doonbeg.”
Asked if he was promoting his golf resort by staying at Doonbeg, Mr Trump responded: “No, this trip is really about great relationships that we have with the UK, and I really wanted to do this stop in Ireland.
“It was very important to me because of the relationship I have with the people and with your prime minister.”
Arriving in Ireland for the first time, Donald Trump sought to reassure the country that Britain’s exit from the EU would work out fine for its near neighbour.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar planned to use a meeting with Mr Trump, who has been a vocal supporter of Brexit, to underline Ireland’s concerns over the departure, his deputy said.
Before meeting Mr Varadkar, the US president said he expected the premier would ask him about Brexit and that he was sure it would all “work out very well”.
He told reporters: “The way it [the border] works now is good, you want to try and keep it that way and I know that’s a big point of contention with respect to Brexit.”
Asked if he will give Irish citizens access to the E3 visa, Mr Trump said: “We are looking at that. We almost made it last time, it was one vote.
“I am sure that is something we are going to discuss, I spoke to the one vote, who is a great senator by the way, he really is, he’s a great senator, and we think we are going to be successful.
“He’s a terrific person, he doesn’t mean to do any harm, that I can tell you, he was telling me he loves Ireland actually, so I think we are going to be in great shape.”
Donald Trump has compared the thorny issue of the post-Brexit Irish border to his own efforts to build a border wall along the US border with Mexico.
The US president was speaking alongside the Republic of Ireland’s prime minister Leo Varadkar during when he made a series of remarks about “your wall, your border”. The Taoiseach interjected to say Ireland wanted to “avoid” any walls.
Mr Trump said: “I think [Brexit] will all work out very, and also for you with your wall, your border. We have a border situation in the United States and you have one over here. But I hear it’s going work out very well … it’s going to work out very well here.”
Mr Varadkar immediately responded by saying: “The thing we want to avoid, of course, is a border wall.”
Watch the awkward encounter here:
Asked about the United State as a guarantor of peace in Northern Ireland, the US president repeated that he did not think the border was “going to be a problem at all”.
He added: “First we have to wait to see who is going to be prime minister. We’ll see what happens over in the UK because that’s going to be decision number one, who is going to be prime minister.
“Once that happens, that person will get in and try to make a deal and maybe if they don’t make a deal, they do it in a different way but I know one thing, Ireland is going to be in great shape, Ireland is a special place that’s going to be in very good shape.”
Here’s the moment Donald and Melania Trump touched down at Shannon Airport on Air Force Two on the first day of his visit to the Republic of Ireland.
In other news, lawyers for a Chinese woman charged with illegally entering Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida say she is mentally competent and should not be blocked from representing herself.
Yujing Zhang told a judge she wanted to fire her public defenders and represent herself last month.
He tried to dissuade her but said he would allow it if she were found to be competent.
The 33 year old has pleaded not guilty to charges of trespassing at the resort on 30 March and lying to Secret Service agents.
Mar-a-Lago (Getty)
Mr Trump has now headed off to play some golf at his Ireland golf course, after landing in the country.
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