SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Trump arrived in Dublin early this morning, where he's meeting with the Irish taoiseach - or prime minister - Micheal Martin, as well as Irish President Catherine Connolly, who has called President Trump a bully. The president then flies to the coast of Ireland, where he'll be attending the Irish Open at his golf club in Doonbeg. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is traveling with the president and joins us. Franco, thanks so much for being with us.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: Anytime President Trump travels to Europe, it raises questions about what are sometimes fraught relationships with traditional allies in Europe. This visit might be slightly different?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. For sure. I mean, I see this as being a more friendly visit. I mean, Trump's basically, Scott, trying to squeeze a little diplomacy into a golf weekend. I mean, there is, of course, always potential for fireworks when President Trump is meeting with a foreign leader, especially a European foreign leader. But here, both sides are going to be focused on the strong economic ties.
I mean, as he has with other European nations, Trump has accused Ireland of taking advantage of the U.S., pointing to the large concentration of American pharmaceutical companies in Ireland. But Ireland actually continues to invest heavily in the U.S. even amid broad tariffs against the European Union, which Ireland is, of course, a member. The chief of Ireland's Economic Development Agency actually told me that Ireland is now the sixth-largest investor in the U.S., which is quite a lot for a small country that's basically the same size as South Carolina.
SIMON: You mentioned some of the tensions with Europe over trade, but President Trump also has issues with Europe about military defense. How does that figure into his relationship with Ireland?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. Certainly, Trump has not been happy with European leaders, particularly NATO leaders, about what he sees as their lack of help for the U.S. and its war with Iran. He was actually at a meeting with the taoiseach at the White House earlier this year, where Trump delivered some of the harshest criticism of NATO leaders - you know, calling them foolish for not helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The taoiseach actually tried to push back - very delicately so - in defending NATO leaders and emphasizing the importance of the transatlantic relationship.
SIMON: And President Trump also wants Europe to be less dependent on U.S. military power, doesn't he?
ORDOÑEZ: You know, that's where the Ireland relationship becomes much more interesting because Ireland is not a member of NATO. It's militarily neutral. And it's because of that, it has been able to avoid some of the tensions that Trump has had with NATO allies over burden-sharing and support for the U.S. Daniel Mulhall, who served as Ireland's ambassador to the U.S. during Trump's first administration, told me that the military neutrality gives Ireland a different angle to deal with Trump than much of the rest of Europe.
DANIEL MULHALL: I think where the Irish role might be most useful is in relation to being a bridge between the European Union and the United States - not in the defense area because we're not actually involved in NATO, but rather in the area of economic policy.
SIMON: Let's dig into that a little more, Franco. Is Ireland the model?
ORDOÑEZ: It's a bit more complicated than that. There are drawbacks to the military-neutral model. Some analysts argue that it makes Ireland more vulnerable. That said, in many ways, Ireland is doing the things that Trump wants the rest of Europe to do. I mean, the relationship goes well beyond St. Patrick's Day celebrations and parades.
SIMON: NPR's Franco Ordoñez. Thanks so much for being with us.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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