US PRESIDENT, Donald Trump has called his Doonbeg golf course one of the best in the world and said he is “going to try” to visit the county in September and admitted he was unaware of the latest objection to plans to build a ballroom in West Clare.
As Taoiseach Micheál Martin (FF) visited US President Trump in The White House on St Patrick’s Day, Doonbeg unsurprisingly came in the conversation.
Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Doonbeg Ireland will host the Amgen Irish Open in September with the US President hopeful of being in Co Clare for the European Tour event.
Doonbeg hosting the Irish Open was welcomed by the US President who remarked, “it will be a fantastic success” with the Taoiseach nodding beside him.“It is a great thing, my son and my family, we have a great golf complex in Ireland, it is one of the best in the world, it is called Doonbeg and it is in Doonbeg”.
He said, “Rory McIlroy and all the best golfers in the world love it”. Trump continued, “You have a tremendous golf tradition, and it was chosen for the Irish Open, which is a big deal. That’s a big event. Everybody wants me to be there. You (Mr Martin) just said, ‘I hope you’re going to go’,”.
On the prospect of visiting Doonbeg for The Irish Open, he said, “We are going to try, it will be an honour”.
Owned by the Trump family since 2014, he labelled the golf course in Doonbeg as one of the best in the world. “It was a great honour to be chosen. They only choose the best courses in the world for the, you know, for the big opens – it’s one of the big ones”.
President Trump was not aware of the setback to plans to build a ballroom at Trump Doonbeg. A lone objection was made last week by Liam Madden in Longford who lodged separate appeals with An Coimiúsin Pleanála against two separate planning permissions granted by Clare County Council last month for the permanent ballroom and other upgrades at the Doonbeg resort.
In his appeal against the planned ballroom, Madden has urged ACP to “please refuse this nonsense” and pointed to what he describes as the marked deterioration of the 2mm Vertigo Angustior snail at the site.
“I have not heard that,” the US President admitted when asked about the objection. “The course was built and has been operated successfully”. On the issue of the “snails” that were cited in an objection to the extension, he said that “doesn’t sound like the biggest problem I’ve ever had”.
Trump told the meeting, “I am not afraid of anything” when questioned on the ongoing war with Iran. He stated, “Iran is just a military operation to me, it was largely over in two or three days, the military was wiped out almost immediately and the airforce came out next”. He claimed the US could take out Iran’s electrical capacity in an hour. “If we left right now, it would take them ten years to rebuild but we’re not ready to leave yet,” he said, “We will be ready to leave in the near future”.
Prices of fuel and oil will drop as soon as the war is over, Trump said. “As soon as the war is over and that will be soon, your prices will drop like a rock”.
Criticism of the US attack on Iran by President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly was put before the US President who responded, “He’s lucky that I exist” when flagging that their motivation centres around nullifying the nuclear threat posed by Iran.
Taoiseach Martin defended UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer who came under criticism from Trump. The US President also claimed that Barack Obama didn’t want a bust of Winston Churchill in The White House during his term, “Unfortunately Keir is no Winston Churchill”.
Their meeting ended with Trump issuing an update on an ongoing libel case against the BBC. He said he is very proud of the term fake news “because I came up with” but said the BBC are now producing corrupt and fraudulent news.
