Reports say that on the 12th, when the US president met with the visiting Irish Prime Minister Martin at the White House, he expressed dissatisfaction with the trade imbalance between the two countries, claiming that Ireland was "taking advantage of the US".
The reports state that during the meeting, Trump criticized Ireland for luring away "pharmaceutical and other companies" from the US through preferential policies such as tax incentives, which he said had damaged US employment and the economy. Trump said that if he had been in office when Ireland adopted these preferential policies to attract multinational companies, he would have imposed a 200% tariff on all Irish products to prevent such a situation.
On January 23rd in Dublin, Ireland, Martin left the parliament. The Irish House of Representatives held a meeting in Dublin on January 23rd to elect Martin, the leader of the Republican Party, as the new prime minister of the coalition government.
Martin refuted by saying that Ireland also has many investment enterprises in the US, and the two sides have a mutually beneficial relationship.
Trump also criticized the EU during the meeting. The European Commission issued a communiqué on the 12th, stating that due to the unreasonable tariffs imposed by the US on steel and aluminum products imported from the EU, the EU decided to impose retaliatory tariffs on US goods worth 26 billion euros.
According to reports, since Ireland cut corporate tax rates to attract investment in the 2000s, more than 1,000 US companies have set up operations in Ireland. Trump and his advisors have discussed pressuring these companies to move their operations and taxes back to the US.
On February 19th, the US president returned to the White House in Washington by helicopter.
Recently, some economists have re - proposed the "Trump recession". More and more investors and economic circles are worried that Trump's series of unilateralist policies such as tariffs will plunge the US into a "man - made recession".