Harris backs Taoiseach’s Trump visit, as engagement ‘more important than ever’

By Claudia Savage, Press Association

Simon Harris has expressed his support for the Taoiseach’s meeting with US President Donald Trump, saying “it’s more important than ever” to engage.

The Tánaiste also said political leaders should “call out racism in all its forms” when asked about a video produced by the White House depicting former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as apes.

On Friday, Micheál Martin confirmed he would visit the White House on St Patrick’s Day.

Mr Martin said Mr Trump believes the annual engagement is a chance “to celebrate the special relationship between our two countries”.

Calls were made last year for the Taoiseach to drop the trip as Mr Trump began his second term as president.

The leaders of the main opposition party, Sinn Féin, did not attend the White House because of the US administration’s approach to Gaza.

Those calls have been amplified in the wake of the US’s rescinded threat to take over Greenland, and Mr Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown in the city of Minneapolis and elsewhere in the US.

Asked at a Fine Gael Disability Network Conference in Galway if he would meet Mr Trump as taoiseach, Mr Harris said he would, adding: “It’s really important that you’re engaged.”

“It’s really easy to turn up when everyone’s getting along great, and everyone agrees on absolutely everything.

“It’s harder to turn up when there are legitimate areas of policy difference, but it’s actually more important than ever to do that,” he said.

“The relationship between our two countries is enduring. It’s much deeper than who holds the office of taoiseach or president of the United States.

“There’s about 10 per cent people in the US who claim Irish links and descendancy and there are about 200,000 people who vote, who work in the United States in companies that are Irish-owned, about 800 companies, many of those would have voted for President Trump.

“They get out of bed this morning, they go to work in Irish-owned companies, and here in Ireland, obviously there are hundreds of companies providing hundreds of thousands of jobs too.

“So it’s an economic relationship, it’s a cultural relationship, it’s a historical relationship.

“It was kind of very interesting, I didn’t hear much commentary as to whether the Taoiseach should or shouldn’t have gone to China and of course, he should have.

“He should go to the United States. We should always engage. We should always engage, and we engage respectfully, and we engage being true to our values.”

Mr Trump’s administration came under fire this week after posting the racist video on social media featuring the Obamas as primates in a jungle, which was deleted on Friday.

The Thursday night post was blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation’s first black president and first lady.

In a rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the video was deleted just hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post.

Mr Harris said he “absolutely deplores racism in all its forms” and referred to reports that Fine Gael councillor Yemi Adenuga was racially attacked last week.

The Nigerian-Irish representative from Navan said a man spat at her and told her to “go back where she came from”.

“Racism is sickening, it’s a scourge in our society, we should always condemn all forms of racism,” Mr Harris said

“President Obama and Michelle Obama served their country with distinction, and any form of racism should absolutely completely initially be condemned as sickening.

“My understanding is that that video was quite rightfully deleted.

“And can I say, here in Ireland, indeed, I met Councillor Yemi Adenuga, one of our own councillors from Navan this week, who experienced vicious racism in her own community.”

He said: “So no country is immune from racism and there is an absolute responsibility on all of us in leadership positions and all of us in our lives, whatever role we play, to call out racism in all its forms.”