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White House Press Pool Reports @WHPressPool - Pool report #7/Friends of Ireland luncheon
In the Rayburn Room near the House floor. Speaker Mike Johnson jokes about his own family's Italian roots but notes that his wife is Irish.
Four round tables of 10. The menu is short rib or cod. US and Irish flags flank the portrait of George Washington.
Johnson notes lots of Irish politicians in US history. Name checks Kennedy, Reagan and Tip O'Neill, the latter two started this tradition.
Introduces POTUS at about 1:33. POTUS ends about 1:53.
At one point jokes that he was surprised to learn of Johnson's Italian heritage. "I always thought he was a super WASP," Trump said. The speaker and others laughed.
At the top, Trump name checked congressional leaders and others in the room, waving at Ireland's ambassador who'd been seated to seats from him at corner table, then the UK's ambassador, Christian Turner, proceeding to look around the room for him not realizing that Turner was seated directly in front of the lecture maybe 3 feet away. Turner gave a little wave. Trump leaned in and reached out his hand for a hand shake.
Trump reverted to Iran having been "two weeks" away from having a nuclear weapons if not for the B-2 bombs eight months ago.
He offers praise for Ireland and the many emigres who came to the US.
The Irish did not come to America. They helped found America. The fact is, and they helped build America. These are incredible people I know well, and with a little bit of Irish luck, they helped make America into the most exceptional nation the world has ever seen," Trump said.
"You're a big part of our country," he said later.
Talks of Iran war as "a little excursion." Says it will be over "in a couple of weeks. It won't be much longer…. We are way ahead of schedule," which he assured Speaker Johnson will save money.
"Somebody, a great war historian, told me today, nobody would have thought you could do that much damage in that little time, two weeks," Trump said.
"Our biggest problem, we don't know who to deal with" in Iran because "they're all gone," Trump said.
The Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin, emphasized the economic ties between US and Ireland, with
200,000 US employees at nearly 800 Irish owned companies in every state. Notes that Ireland is the 5th biggest foreign investor in the US.