By Bo Erickson and Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, Sept 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will meet Ireland’s leaders on Saturday before attending a golf tournament this weekend, a departure from his recent focus on the Iran war and his party’s effort to maintain power in November’s midterm elections.
The meetings with Ireland’s president and prime minister are not part of an official state visit. But coming after this week’s Republican convention and the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the talks could include politically sensitive topics such as economic issues and Irish leaders’ concerns over the Iran war.
Trump is making his 48-hour foreign trip as his Republican Party campaigns to keep its majorities in both chambers of the U.S. Congress. The Iran conflict has heightened economic concerns among American voters by raising gas prices nationwide.
Anti-war and anti-Trump protests are planned in Dublin and in western Ireland near the Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg.
Ireland is one of the European Union’s most pro-Palestinian countries and passed a law in July curbing goods trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. U.S. lawmakers and the American ambassador to Ireland criticized the law.
U.S., IRELAND TIES
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has so far avoided political flaps with the U.S.
“The relationship between Ireland and the United States is very important economically,” Martin told reporters when asked about Trump’s weekend trip. “It’s very, very significant both ways.”
U.S.-owned companies employ about 10% of workers in Ireland after successive governments prioritized their jobs and corporate tax revenue over decades, handing Ireland the healthiest public finances in Europe in recent years.
In Dublin on Saturday, Irish President Catherine Connolly, elected head of state last year, will have more direct interaction with Trump than she had during his first presidential visit in 2019. At the time, Connolly, an outspoken politician with far-left views on foreign policy, protested Trump’s visit outside Shannon Airport in western Ireland.
Now that Connolly is in the largely ceremonial role of president, some supporters have urged her to speak up against U.S. military actions around the world and defend Ireland’s neutrality.
Including Trump, eight sitting U.S. presidents have visited Ireland, starting with John F. Kennedy in 1963. But this trip has some hallmarks of Trump’s typical weekends, which often revolve around golf outings at his company’s properties.
The Trump Organization took control in 2014 of the Doonbeg course, which is hosting the Irish Open golf tournament this weekend. Trump is expected to help present the trophy on Sunday to the tournament champion.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson in Washington and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Sergio Non and Rod Nickel)
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