President Donald Trump ripped the “stupid” political leaders in the United States on Wednesday during a meeting in the Oval Office with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.
Trump made the remarks after stating that the entire reason the European Union was created was to “take advantage of the United States.”
The president said that Ireland was one of the countries that was taking advantage of the U.S. but that he had respect for them for doing so because that’s what he would have done if he was in their position.
“But the United States shouldn’t have let it happen,” Trump said. “We had stupid leaders. We had leaders that didn’t have a clue, or, let’s say they weren’t business people, but they didn’t have a clue what was happening.”
“And all of a sudden, Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies and other [companies], this beautiful island of 5 million people, it’s got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grips,” he continued. “I’d like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years, not just with Ireland, with everybody.”
Trump said that one of the main reasons that he decided to run for president in the first place was he was looking at trade deals and he believed that the U.S. was being ripped off.
“I decided I had to do this because somebody had to straighten it out,” he said. “And I didn’t see anybody that was going to. I looked at trade deals that were so bad I’d actually say, ‘How is it possible that this could have happened? Who would have been so stupid to let these deals happen?'”
The president said that with respect to Ireland, he would have told U.S. pharmaceutical companies that they could go to Ireland if they wanted to, but he would hit them with a 200% tariff on their products if they did, ensuring that they would never be able to sell to the U.S. market.
“You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here,” he concluded.
WATCH:
POTUS: “The EU was set up to take advantage of the United States… I’d like to see the United States not have been so stupid for so many years… When the pharmaceutical companies started going to Ireland, I would have said that’s okay — but if you want to sell anything into… pic.twitter.com/ohTjMrJjkR
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 12, 2025
