US President Donald Trump has praised the warmth and hospitality of the people of Ireland while also praising admitting “you are some of the vicious b****** I’ve met”.
President Trump is heading for Doonbeg on Saturday afternoon where he will stay until Sunday evening to watch the expected finale of the Amgen Irish Open. Shane Lowry currently leads the field after two rounds.
In a wide-ranging address in Farmeigh House, the residence of Ed Walsh, the US Ambassador to Ireland, President Trump touched on a number of topics including his desire for a United Ireland and his criticism of the trade, energy and immigration policies in Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
“This country is a fantastic place, I love it, I have investments here but that is not why I love it, you have special people here, the hospitality of Irish people. They say you can’t generalise about groups of people or countries but you can. People love coming to Ireland because they love you, they love the people. There’s a friendliness, there’s also a vicious and a toughness. Let me tell you. You’re some of the most vicious b******* I’ve met. But when you want to be nice, there’s nobody nicer. And I just want to thank you. It’s an honour to be here”.
He has been following proceedings at his five-star resort in Doonbeg which has been hosting The Amgen Irish Open since Thursday. “Shane is leading and Rory is doing well, seven Irish golfers are looking good for the hunt. It is an honour to be here”.
In a forty minute speech, President Trump touched on crime, clamping down on drug importation and immigration. “Two percent of the people create most, you could say all the crime, we got rid of them so we’ve got rid of most of the crime,” he stated while saying Washington “has become a safe city” and admitted a similar focus will now be applied to Memphis. “We have the best crime numbers we have in the history of our country. The murder rate, it is a lousy thing to say but it is down to our lowest rate in 125 years”.
President Trump said there was “no discrimination” when removing people from the US “but we got them the hell out, the United Kingdom has to do the same and I hate to say it but so does Europe”.
He said he “hates to see” what is happening in Ireland, the UK and Europe regarding trade, energy and immigration, “ooh what you are doing on immigration, you are killing yourselves”.
NATO’s reluctance to get involved on the Strait of Hormuz was also slammed by the US President.
At a press conference on Saturday morning, President Trump said he would love to see a United Ireland. “I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides,” he said. “Great people. They’re Irish people. How can they be bad, right? I’d love to see it unified. I think it would be a great, a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.”
Trump said that he and Mr Martin had discussed the issue among other topics in their meeting this morning. “We were talking about it. You got the right man over here to get it moving”, he said in reference to Mr Martin. He added, “But yeah, 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?”
President Trump has now departed Dublin and is flying via helicopter to Shannon Airport before proceeding to Doonbeg.
