Taoiseach should not visit White House for St Patrick's Day if Trump threats continue, Bacik says

Vivienne Clarke

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik has said that if US president Donald Trump continues to threaten Europe, then it would not be appropriate for the Taoiseach to visit the White House for St Patrick’s Day.

“If diplomacy this week in Davos, if diplomacy over the coming weeks doesn't succeed in addressing the appalling threats being made by Trump, then of course Ireland must take its place in solidarity with European leaders who are now calling Trump a bully," she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

"And we cannot go to Washington with shamrocks certainly in that context, and we cannot allow US planes to use Shannon and, indeed, other European countries which have US bases I am sure are having this very same conversation.

"Because it is unthinkable that a US which is militarily threatening a sovereign state in Europe could be allowed to use European countries as military bases for that."

Bacik said the US president has "succeeded in normalising the utterly unacceptable".

"What we've seen in the just a year since he took office, we've seen a sort of really creeping fascism taking over in the US."

Ms Bacik urged that there be “no more appeasement of Trump, no more flattery, no more capitulating, because we've seen that simply doesn't work. He is a bully.

"President Trump had initiated a global trade war, it was not the EU starting a trade war, it was the US that had imposed tariffs. However, once Trump makes these threats, the EU must stand firm with resolve and solidarity against him.

"The EU’s anti-coercion mechanism was a hugely powerful financial weapon that the EU can use against Trump. I think it must now be, the EU must now prepare to deploy that.

“This is the bazooka that the EU must deploy. It's not a military tool, and that's important. It is a hugely powerful financial weapon that the EU can use against Trump. I think it must now be, the EU must now prepare to deploy that.”