You have to hand it to the Irish, they certainly know how to give a warm welcome at Trump's private golf course at Doonbeg, County Clare. You think the guy knows how universally reviled he is at this point? Probably not.
At least he wasn't hopping from AF1 to AF2 by catering truck this time. I watched the instadoc, as Netflix called it, last night and it was like something you would expect to see on Instagram - meaningless other than to stretch the story over 28 minutes to make it look like they had done some research. The only reason I keep my Netflix subscription is because I'm dying to see the Lizzie Borden miniseries they have coming up, and Florence Pugh in East of Eden. After that I can finally quit this ridiculous paid subscription service.
Trump did meet with Irish President Catherine Connolly, who rolled out the Honour Guard for him. I guess that made up for the rude reception he got on the golf course. It wasn't much better in the streets of Dublin with balloons showing Trump getting humped by various figures, including Netanyahu and an ICE agent. Needless to say, he is not very well liked.
He pitched the idea of a united Ireland, mostly to troll Great Britain I imagine, as he and his cronies are none to happy about new Prime Minister Burnham imposing sanctions on Israel. Trump also lifted tariffs on Irish whiskey as a friendly gesture.
It's kind of funny as neither Connolly nor Irish PM Martin have very many nice things to say about Trump. Connolly has been on record as saying she abhors his politics, and described him as a bully. It was an icy handshake to say the least.
You kind of wonder, why bother? Trump was only there to watch a golf tournament being staged on his golf course. The political side trips were just for show, raising a clenched fist to his MAGA faithful back home, but he came out of the meeting like he had been severely browbeaten. She apparently expressed the Irish people's "strong view" on the war and genocide taking place in Gaza and the West Bank.
I'm not sure what Trump gets out of these visits but he did seem anxious to strike a conciliatory tone with Ireland, most likely to serve as a wedge in any future negotiations with Great Britain. So far his deal making hasn't gone very well but apparently the golf tournament was a great success. Well, almost.
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