Leo Varadkar speaks out amid Connolly, Trump meeting concerns

Speaking on Matt Cooper’s "Path to Power" podcast, Mr Varadkar predicted how the meeting between the two polar opposites will go this weekend.

The US President is due to arrive in Ireland on Saturday, September 12, primarily to attend the Irish Open at his Doonbeg golf resort in Co Clare.

During the trip, he is expected to pay a brief courtesy call to President Connolly at Áras an Uachtaráin, before a separate meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Farmleigh House.

The prospect of the two presidents sitting down together has drawn attention given Connolly’s long record of criticism of US foreign policy.

Leo Varadkar.

A vocal opponent of war and of the US military’s use of Shannon Airport during her years as a TD, she described Trump during last year’s election campaign as "volatile" and "unpredictable", and has called America an "imperial power".

Some of those who backed her will expect her to raise issues such as Palestine and Irish neutrality, while others believe she should put diplomacy first given the scale of economic ties between the two countries.

Ireland's President Catherine Connolly.

"He won't care"

Speaking on the Path to Power podcast with Matt Cooper, Varadkar suggested the meeting was unlikely to produce fireworks.

"The only bad meeting that I’ve ever seen Donald Trump have was with Zelensky," he said. "Most of his meetings actually go quite well. You saw how well the meeting went with Mamdani, for example."

Put to him by Cooper that people simply have to flatter Trump to keep him onside, Varadkar was not so sure, arguing the US President is largely indifferent to what is said to him.

"It’s not that he really cares what you say either," he said. "She’s not going to verbally abuse him or be impolite. You don’t invite somebody into your house and insult them, and when you’re representing the country, you don’t behave in that way.

"So I think what she will do is mention and raise some of these issues in a way that is firm and polite. And he won’t really care anyway. And then he’ll go off and play the golf and watch the thing [the Irish Open] and have dinner. And that’s the sad situation that we’re in."

His prediction broadly chimes with the Government’s position. Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he has no concerns ‘at all’ about the meeting, calling it ‘appropriate and proper’ that the head of State would receive the US President.

Others expect Connolly to use the moment, however brief.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said he believed she would raise Palestine with Trump in a diplomatic way, reflecting views he said were shared by much of the Irish public.

Listen to the full episode of Matt Cooper's "Path to Power" podcast as he speaks with former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar: 

 * This article was originally published on Extra.ie.