Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Bilateral Meeting With Micheál Martin of Ireland - September 12, 2026

Okay. Could I just first of all say President Trump, uh, welcome to Ireland and, uh, welcome to Farmleigh. Um, and as I said earlier, we're very mindful of the fact that, uh, this week, America in particular, uh, and the entire world has been marking the 25th anniversary of the murderous attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

And I know you gave a, a significant speech at the Pentagon. Um, and to say we're thinking of you, we're thinking of all Americans. Uh, it had a deep impact in Ireland at the time. We had a national day of mourning in the aftermath of 9/11. Over a thousand were of Irish heritage.

Right.

We'll always remember the incredible courage, bravery, and sacrifice of the first responders, the firefighters, the NYPD, the court authority, people who put themselves in harm's way, sacrificed their lives to try and save the lives of our fellow citizens. And in many ways, it remains inspirational to the entire world, the bravery of those American first, um, responders.

Uh, so that's something we're very conscious of. We're particularly pleased that you made it for the Irish Open.

Okay.

Uh, you did say to me 12 months ago, uh, that you would do everything possible to get here, uh, when it was announced that, uh, Doonbeg would be the venue for, uh, the Irish Open. Um, and I think it illustrates the very strong sporting relationship between our two countries. And what a great year it's been for you with the World Cup, uh, which we all watched.

The other day we didn't make it through to it, but we still watched it all our sta- -- all the stars were playing. We have the Olympics, uh, Los Angeles coming. Uh, we had American college football recently, uh, North Carolina and the Texans.

That's right.

Uh, and, um, you know, we have the Irish Open now. We have the Ryder Cup next year. So the sporting connections between our two countries are, are huge. And the people at Doonbeg are particularly appreciative of your investment and the investment of, and your family. And we welcome your family here, delighted that they could make the trip.

Um, in terms of the investment in Doonbeg, [Inaudible] about 350 people in that remote part --

That's right.

-- of West Clare and it's a valuable, valuable asset to the area. They're particularly welcoming of it. And in many ways, uh, I think that illustrates the strength of the economic relationship between our two countries. I know the ambassador is taking you, uh, to his residence where you will meet hundreds of Irish business people who have, uh, investments in America, who are employing American people, over 200,000 Americans employed by Irish companies.

And yes, there are American companies in Ireland who are employing about 225,000 Irish people. Uh, they get access to the European market from the base here, uh, and, and the Asian market and they do, uh, particularly well. So it's a, it's a very strong old relationship. I showed you the gift that you gave me, uh --

That's right.

-- our gift [Inaudible] outside, uh, which is, uh, the decoration of, of American independence in 1776. And then you have a lovely book that you presented to me, which I have on display now in government buildings, um, with nine people, some born in Ireland, three born in Ireland and others of Irish descent.

The printer was an Irishman and so on like that. And that's how long, enduring, and how deep the relationship between our two countries is. And that's why we're very pleased, uh, to welcome you to Ireland and to this house here, the Farmleigh House, uh, which I think reflects, uh, part of that as well.

Well, thank you very much. And we've been friends and we've had a great relationship right from the beginning. And they did make a promise to come over. I said if I can, I'm gonna do it because, uh, we, uh, we talked about it. The Irish Open is a very big event in Ireland and frankly all over the world really because it's a great golf event and you have the best players in the world right now.

In fact, Shane is, an Irish person named Shane, just call him Shane, is winning and, uh --

Yeah.

-- he's leading. You know, he's got a long way to go.

Everybody's watching. [Laughs]

[Inaudible] Ro- -- Rory's playing well, but he always plays well.

He always plays well.

But there, uh, you have a lot of great Irish players that are doing very well at an Irish course. And it's been a tremendous success. It's rated one of the greatest courses in the world and I'm very honored to have it. I've owned it for, I built it, uh, it's about 22 years right on the ocean. So it's very exciting and, uh, I'll be going there later, but we're doing business.

We've had, uh, some discussions on trade and various other things. We have a big relationship with Ireland and that'll continue stronger than ever, but it's doing, we're doing very well. The two countries do very well together. We've had a, a very long, but I would say it's never been as good as it is right now.

So it's, uh, thank you for hosting us and I know you're going to the Irish Open tomorrow.

Yes.

You're gonna spend a whole day there?

Whole day there.

And, uh, you're gonna see some good golfers out here, I'm telling you.

Absolutely. Looking forward to it.

Thank you very much. It's really [Inaudible]

Thank you.

[Inaudible]

Thank you.

When will the war in Iran end, Mr. President?

I think very soon. I think it'll be, uh, probably right after midterms. They're trying to hold out as long as they can to complicate the election, but I think people are wise to it because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. This is a very simple thing. Iran cannot have, they were two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.

If they had it, they would have blown up Israel, they would have blown up the Middle East and they would have hit some Europe's, in my opinion, Europe's cities and beyond cities. And they would have probably hit us too before we put, put out the fire. But, uh, they cannot have a nuclear weapon. But I would say, uh, shortly and well will come tumbling down.

When that happens, oil prices will come tumbling down.

Mr. President, how was your call with MBS and what is the US willing to do?

Well, I have had a call with MBS. He's a good friend of mine and, uh, it's gonna, I can just say everything's gonna work out fine and dandy. It's gonna be very good. So you don't get involved in these things. [Laughter]

We have a very nice, nice [Inaudible] but you have your own difficulties, I would imagine, right?

Now and again, yeah. [Laughter] Mr. President [Inaudible]

[Inaudible]. But no, I think it's gonna, it's all working out fine. Uh, I would say shortly after they went a great convention. We went to Dallas, Texas. We had a midterm convention. It was never done by either party and it's probably gonna become a staple.

[Inaudible]

It was so successful, so beautiful. And the arenas were packed, uh, both days. And frankly, nobody expected to ever see anything like it. It felt, I think it actually felt better than the so-called original conventions. It was as good as it could get. And, uh, the Republicans had a good time. We had a good time.

A lot of great people running for office and the same people were running, were running against some major insanity. But we don't have to get into that, but major insanity. But we had a, a tremendous, that was a tremendous two-day period.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, is Iran responsible, do you assess that Iran is responsible for the [Inaudible]?

Mike there, Mike, could we just turn, could we just take Mike there once and, just Mike.

Mr., Mr., Mr., Mr., Mr. President --

Yeah.

-- what do you say to some people in Ireland who say the US is facilitating genocide in Gaza and also facilitating Israel around the illegal occupation of territories in the West Bank?

Well, when you say Gaza, you know, we're, we put out the fire and we got all the hostages back. Uh, there's very little happening right now in Gaza. That's not the place that people are talking about actually now. It was all about Gaza. We got involved and we facilitated a, a piece of, of a kind. But, uh, we got all the hostages back, where some dead, some living.

We got them all back. They wanted, you know, it's amazing. The parents of those dead hostages, they knew they were dead. They wanted their son or daughter, but mostly sons. They wanted their sons back, their babies. The mothers had their babies. They wanted the, the babies back just as much as though, uh, their son was alive.

And we got 'em back. We got every one of 'em back. We had, in the end, we had 28 that were dead. And we had a lot that were alive. If you go back over the, you know, three, four year period, we got many. People forget. But I always said that last 30 or 40 is gonna be very tough because of what happened. But, uh, we are, uh, if you look at Gaza, there's a lot of good relationships taking place right now in Gaza.

It's been quite amazing. I think we've done a great job. Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, the whole group, they've done a very good job with it.

Mr. President --

Could I just say, um, sorry, just, just to make [Inaudible]? Myself and the president discussed, uh, the need for ongoing humanitarian aid to go into Gaza and, uh, we will continue our discussions in terms of Irish aid and support, um.

Right.

-- going into Gaza, the president will try and facilitate that.

I will, we'll get it done. [Inaudible]

Yeah. I think that's, that's something that the peace --

Dan, would you take care of that?

-- the peace plan that the president has announced is something we support, the 20-point peace plan. And it is difficult and it is challenging, but I think it's the right direction --

[Inaudible]

-- particularly, particularly the humanitarian, um, aspect of it.

We'll get that done.

We think we can do more there.

Your aid, we'll get done very --

Yeah.

Definitely. .So I'll let Dan Scavino work on it.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, what would you say to the thousands of Irish people who will be protesting today because they don't want you to come to Ireland?

I didn't know there was a protest. [Laughter]

It can't be a very big one because we've been all over Ireland today already. It's early in the morning and we've been all, we landed early. Uh, we got here and we've made a couple of visits, as you know, and we have others to make. But I haven't seen any protests. It's a friendly protest, I would say, but, uh, we have a great relationship with Ireland.

The United States and Ireland have a fantastic relationship, a very profitable one for Ireland.

Yes.

Less profitable for us, to be honest with you. Uh, rather big surplus, your country, you can be very proud of your country 'cause it's a big surplus, right? But, uh, no, we have, uh, a great relationship. I have seen no protests.

[Crosstalk]

President Trump, is Iran responsible --

Say it.

Is Iran responsible for the attack on the East-West pipeline? And when do you think Saudi Arabia is going to be able to get that back up?

Well, I think they are. Probably they are. They're, you know, they're on the balls of their feet right now, but I think they are. They've been in charge of that for a while. We've had, uh, discussions. The Houthis called us and they don't wanna fight with us. They let us know they don't want to fight with us. They don't want me to go after, they don't want us to go after them.

But they've called and they've talked to us and they don't want us to, they would much prefer not having us involved. And they're letting most ships go through. There's just one country that they're not too happy with and we'll get that straightened out. But, uh, I have to say, we've done a great job. You know, we control, as you know, we really very powerfully control the Hormuz Strait, and nobody saw that happening.

We have very powerful control over it.

Mr. President.

We have a naval, a naval blockade that's been so incredible. Buy, your oil prices would be much higher. We're taking a lot of boats out. We take out on average 25 boats a day, most of them at night, but we take on average about 25 boats out every single day.

[Crosstalk]

And in Gaza and elsewhere, what did you discuss with your meeting with Catherine Connolly earlier today?

A- -- about what?

Uh, she's been critical of your foreign policy in the past in relation to operations in Venezuela and also in the Middle East. What did you discuss with her today?

Uh, do you wanna talk about that, Monica? Do you know anything about it? [Laughter]

About your conversation with the president --

The President, yes.

-- today. Yeah. The president had a very constructive conversation with President Connolly today about a whole range of issues, including energy and European supplies of energy. Europe has plenty of sources of energy right here on the continent and in the, the surrounding waters of Europe, and they had that conversation very specifically.

Okay.

[Crosstalk]

Did President Connolly bring up the conflicts in the Middle East though with you?

Uh, we discussed a lot of things, uh, quickly. We weren't there very long, but, uh, it was a very nice meeting. We had a very respectful meeting. We did discuss Northern Ireland. I always find it to be a very interesting, as we did.

As we did earlier.

I find it to be a very interesting discussion because we know people of Northern Ireland and we know people of Ireland. And I sometimes say, "Hey, when are you guys getting together?" I do ask that question every time.

You do. [Laughter]

But, uh --

You're consistent with that question. [Laughter]

-- I'm sure it's, I'm sure it's complicated, but life is complicated. But now it's, uh, we discussed a lot of things. Yeah. A lot of very positive things. We have a very positive trade relationship with Ireland.

[Crosstalk]

Go ahead.

How was your phone call with Prime Minister Andy Burnham last week? And did you talk about the Falkland Islands in Argentina?

Well, the Falkland Islands is very interesting 'cause here we go again. I remember as a young boy, pretty young boy anyway, but, uh, the Falkland Islands and, uh --

Hmm.

-- I think it was a different country at that time, the UK a little bit. But they went in and they took it over. I'm not sure that they, they're doing that. They have a little problem with immigration. They have a little problem with energy and they have some other problems they have to take care of. So I don't know.

You know, I don't know if they're gonna be willing to travel that far. That is very far away.

Do you think you there's still [Inaudible], sir?

You're talking about weeks by, by boat, so I don't know. And it's, uh, I'm sure I'll be called into that potential disaster, but, uh, if they do, I'll, I'll probably be able to settle, settle it out. But right now you have two countries that are not happy concerning the Falkland. It's good question.

[Crosstalk]

Is that, is that Bev that asked that question?

[Crosstalk]

Will you return to Ireland for the Ryder Cup next year, President?

Say it?

Will you return to Ireland for the Ryder Cup next year?

I will. Absolutely.

[Inaudible]

I do think it's [Inaudible]. I do think the Ryder Cup should be held [Inaudible], but they won't be probably 'cause I think they give it out ten years in advance, right?

No, it's at, it's in Adare Manor now, next year.

Is that what it is? Yeah.

[Crosstalk]

Mr. President, what's your view on Irish unification, Mr. President?

On Irish what?

Unification. What's your view on it?

Well, I don't wanna cause any problems. [Laughter]

But I will tell you, I'd love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides. Great people. They're Irish people. How can they be bad, right? I'd love to see it unified. I think it'd be a great, uh, a great feather in everybody's cap if that happened. It's gonna happen eventually.

Mr. President --

You know what, the way I look at it, it's gonna happen eventually. This will happen now. We're talking about it and you got the right man over here to get it moving. But, uh, yeah, I'd like, I think it would be a fantastic thing. Now, the UK will have something to say about it, obviously, but I think it would be a great thing.

I mean, how can it be bad?

[Crosstalk]

What did you first think of the [Inaudible]?

Go ahead.

Are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal?

What does that mean?

The, are you considering withdrawing from the USMCA deal with US, Mexico and Canada?

It's a strange question to be asked over here. [Laughter] No, we're gonna have a great, we're gonna have a great relationship with Mexico. We actually have a good one with Canada, but the United States has been ripped off for 50 years by Canada. We don't need their product and they need our product. They do all of their business almost with us and we do very little with them, uh, but, you know, they've taken advantage of our farmers and all.

So that's it. Canada wants to make a deal very badly, just like Iran wants to make a deal very badly. You know, I just don't think they're ready. But Canada wants to make a deal. Uh, I hope Canada appreciates being in the same, uh, sentence with Iran. It's a very interesting [Inaudible]. Canada and Iran both, but Canada wants to make a deal and Iran wants to make a deal.

At the right time, both of those things could happen. But with Iran, we're winning very substantially and, uh, we have a lot of great cards, but they cannot have a nuclear weapon. Canada has to treat our farmers better and they can't charge our farmers tariffs. They were charging our farmers 400% tariffs and many other things.

So when those things go away, they're willing to get rid of all of them. Uh, you'll, you'll probably see a deal with Canada fairly soon.

[Crosstalk]

I think we're done.

Mr. President, how do you plan to pay for the $5,000?

Thank you, press. Thank you. Thank you everyone.

[Inaudible]