Irish PM tells Trump 'all conflicts come to an end,' nudging him to end Iran war
Source: Roll Call
Posted March 17, 2026 at 2:57pm
Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin nodded along Tuesday in the Oval Office as President Donald Trump compared Iran’s hard-line government to Nazi Germany, but he later nudged his host to start wrapping up the war with Tehran. “These are horrendous people. These are the worst people, going back to Hitler, right?” the wartime American commander in chief said on a day when his differences with NATO and other allies over his Iran war boiled over. “And there’s been nothing close.”
As the Iran conflict rages, Martin had the awkward assignment of sitting beside Trump as part of the annual St. Patrick’s Day tradition of the American and Irish leaders celebrating at the White House and Capitol. His approach was to pick his spots, mixing praise with pushback.
“You’re affirming the tremendous bonds between Ireland and the United States that go back to the very foundation of this republic,” he told Trump. “And the Irish helped to build America. We’re very proud of that connection.” The Irish leader also pushed back on Trump’s criticism of European countries’ immigration policies and urged him to look for a way to end the Iran bombardment.
He told the U.S. president, who has pushed European leaders to mirror him by adopting more hard-line immigration policies, that “sometimes Europe gets characterized wrongly in terms of it being overrun.” And when a reporter asked Trump about a possible problem with “small snails” at his Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, Ireland, Martin shook his head and said, “What kind of question was that?”
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/03/17/trump-iran-war-irish-st-patricks-day/