DONALD STAYS SCHTUM ON ENDA’S DAIL TIRADE
DONALD Trump ignored the issue of Enda Kenny calling his policies ‘racist and dangerous’ when the two men met in the White House yesterday.
Neither raised the harsh criticism from last May when the Taoiseach unexpectedly backed the contention of racism and irrationality in Trump’s policies as alleged by left-wing TD Richard Boyd Barrett.
When the Irish Daily Mail asked the US President yesterday if he disputed the suggestion from Mr Kenny that his ideas were ‘racist and dangerous,’ the President said nothing.
Mr Kenny did, though, make a plea for immigration reform directly to Mr Trump at the Speaker’s lunch, concentrating on Irish concerns.
He told Mr Trump he had spoken to his predecessor about immigration, adding: ‘We would like this to be sorted.’ Removing the uncertain status of the undocumented would allow them to stand up and say: ‘Now I am free to contribute to America.’ The point drew applause.
Mr Kenny said he was struck by a line in the national anthem of the United States of America, the Star Spangled Banner, about it being the land of the free and the home of the brave. Irish people in America were as brave as ever, he said, ‘but maybe not as free’.
The Taoiseach appeared emotional as he turned to the President and said: ‘All they want is the opportunity to be free.’
He said he hoped an adjustment could be made by the new administration, and Ireland would give any assistance it could.
Drawn on Mr Trump’s campaign slogan, he said of the 50,000 undocumented Irish: ‘We want to make America great.’ The quip drew another appreciative round of applause.
Earlier the Taoiseach revealed the President had been surprised the number of undocumented Irish in the United States was 50,000. ‘He thought it was higher,’ Mr Kenny said.
And as well as an invitation to Ireland, the Taoiseach also presented Donald Trump with presents yesterday.
He gave the US president a set of Declan Killen cufflinks and a Bord Bia hamper of food. Irish linen and a Carrickmacross lace brooch was presented to Melania Trump. She was also given a children’s book – The Moon Spun Round by WB Yeats – for the Trumps’ ten-year-old son Barron.
The shamrock presented in a bowl by the Taoiseach last night in a White House ceremony will be destroyed as a potential threat to American agriculture, as happens every year. But the President will keep the cut glass in which it was handed over.