NO HARM DON

Trump says he does 'not want to hurt Ireland' but rues 'smart' luring of US companies Prez full of praise for Taoiseach who he calls 'very special man

- LOUISE BURNE

DONALD Trump insisted he does “not want to hurt Ireland” yesterday as he said he would work with the Government to reduce the US trade deficit with this country.

During a 50-minute Oval Office press conference with Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Trump also praised the “great fighters” this island had produced and said America had a “very, very strong and very, very good” relationship with Ireland.

However, the US leader also declared that he would never have let US pharmaceuticals move en masse here and said tariffs would be applied to Ireland and other EU countries.

It came just hours after the European Commission announced 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on US steel and aluminium.

Trump said: “We don't want to do anything to hurt Ireland, but we do want fairness and he [the Taoiseach] understands that.”

He continued: “We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn't know what they were doing.

"It's too bad that happened.

“The Irish are smart people and they took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies through taxation and proper taxation. They made it very, very good for companies to move over there.”

TOUGH

Trump said the EU “treats the US very badly” and “has done for years”. He argued they had been “very tough” and now it was his administration's time to hit back.

He continued: “As you know, we're going to be doing reciprocal tariffs. Whatever they charge us, we're charging them. Nobody can complain about that.”