US President Donald Trump has said that he was unaware that some of Northern Ireland's political leaders chose to boycott this year's White House St Patrick's Day celebrations.
President Trump was asked by reporters for his opinion on the boycotts by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance.
The US President Donald Trump said he had not heard that the parties had decided to boycott St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Washington, DC over his administration’s stance on Gaza.
Asked about the boycotts while meeting Irish premier Micheal Martin in the Oval Office, Mr Trump told reporters: “I haven’t heard that, I really haven’t heard that”
Mr Trump greeted Mr Martin outside, and the pair shook hands, ahead of their sit-down engagement in the Oval Office, which is likely to focus on Ireland’s trading relationship with the US.
The Taoiseach has said he intends to highlight a “two-way street” of investment between the nations in a bid to address concerns the president may voice around a US-Ireland trade imbalance.
The meeting comes amid heightened concern that Mr Trump’s protectionist approach to tariffs and tax could pose a significant risk to an Irish economy that is in large part sustained by long-standing investment by US multinationals.
The President also raised a “massive” trade imbalance with Ireland during his meeting with Taoiseach Micheal Martin.
Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “There’s a massive deficit that we have with Ireland and with other countries too, and we want to sort of even that out as nicely as we can, and we’ll work together.
“But the deficit is massive.”
Mr Trump will later be presented with a bowl of shamrock as the centrepiece of the Irish Government’s major overseas diplomatic push in the run-up to St Patrick’s Day on March 17.
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