MY SHUSH WITH TRUMP

Reporter has moment with president.. but not all goes to plan with ignoramus Donald

- BY CIARA O'LOUGHLIN, Political Correspondent in Washington DC

Micheal Martin and Donald Trump in the Oval Office on St Patrick's Day

AS I shouted “Mr President” alongside 40 other journalists elbowing each other and hoping for the most powerful man in the world to notice them, I felt like I was watching myself in a movie.

Getting the chance to be in the White House, let alone the Oval Office, is completely surreal. But doing it while Donald Trump is the US president is a completely different ballgame.

It was my first time covering the event, but from watching the years of Joe Biden and Barack Obama on TV, it’s night and day how differently Trump operates at these meetings.

Neither of these previous presidents allowed time for so many questions. And as an Irish reporter, it is incredible to get such an opportunity.

However, it isn't quite so joyous when you become the only journalist in the room that President Trump literally waves away for being unable to understand your question.

After shouting “Mr President” dozens of times throughout the press conference, he finally noticed me.

While it is a complete free-for-all, journalists don't really shout out their questions and do wait for Trump to point at them.

Initially, the American reporter in front of me began to speak, but Trump stopped her and said he was pointing at me.

I was actually warned by a colleague to be as loud as possible, because the year beforehand he also moved on from an Irish female reporter, whom he said he couldn't hear.

But us Irish are definitely more softly spoken than the Americans hed be used to, and I wouldn't have the loudest voice anyway - or maybe he just initially didn’t want to answer it. My question also didn’t come out as I said in my head (it never usually does) as I asked: “What are your thoughts about our president saying your actions in Iran are breaking international law?”