Another humiliation awaits Ireland’s premier Micheál Martin in the coming days at the hands of the Trump administration.
At last year’s St Patrick’s Day event in the White House, an annual jamboree of Irish groveling and American paddywhackery, Donald Trump charged the Taoiseach and his “beautiful island” with stealing the US pharmaceutical industry while openly fretting about the loss of the “Irish vote” if he “drained” the country in retaliation. Right on cue, Martin curled up in Trump’s lap, obediently pointing out that his government had, in fact, fought the EU’s tax-avoidance case against Apple in the European Court of Justice.
The meeting took place less than two months into Trump’s second, more radical administration, when he was already revealing a desire to dismantle the international order on which the hyper-globalized Irish economy relies for its booming budget surpluses and eye-watering corporate tax receipts. In 2024, 46 percent of Irish corporate tax was paid by three American multinationals: Apple, Microsoft, and Eli Lilly.
Within weeks, Trump had unleashed a battery of global tariffs, causing one onlooker in an American investment–reliant Irish town to worry about the local economy being “blown to bits.” In MAGA circles, Ireland’s export surplus with the United States was being talked about with increasing regularity and intensifying venom. Shortly after Martin’s obsequious display, Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, described the Irish economic model as his favorite “tax scam.”
In the Irish tax haven, we have since seen a minor reevaluation of American leadership, although it is difficult to tell at this stage whether this is temporary or permanent. One can discern a tactical softening in the government’s line on China with regard to trade and security, and support in some quarters for the goal of European industrial autonomy.
The Irish Times editorial board recently gestured toward a…
Auteur: Colin Gannon
