Trump Is to Visit Ireland in June

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/europe/trump-ireland-visit.html

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DUBLIN — President Trump will visit Ireland on June 5, meeting with the Irish prime minister and spending a night at one of his golf resorts, the White House has confirmed.

Mr. Trump is scheduled to fly into Shannon Airport, in western Ireland, after his three-day state visit to Britain, the administration said on Tuesday. He will leave again the next day to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France.

Bilateral talks with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will be held at the airport, a trans-Atlantic refueling hub in County Clare that has a long history of hosting international meetings.

The announcement ended days of speculation in the Irish and international news media that the visit could be derailed by disagreement about where Mr. Trump would meet with Mr. Varadkar.

Irish officials had told news outlets that the White House had wanted the meeting to take place at Mr. Trump’s seaside golf resort at Doonbeg, also in County Clare. The Irish government rejected this for protocol reasons, suggesting instead that Mr. Varadkar host the president in nearby Dromoland Castle, where President George W. Bush was welcomed in 2004.

CNN reported that the White House had suggested that if Mr. Varadkar would not go to the Trump International Golf Links at Doonbeg, then Mr. Trump might choose to visit one of his Scottish courses instead. That report was officially denied by the Irish Embassy in Washington, which later welcomed the announcement that the trip to Ireland was to go ahead.

“Detailed arrangements around the visit will be made public in due course,” the embassy said in a statement on Tuesday.

After Mr. Trump’s election in 2016, the Irish prime minister at the time, Enda Kenny, gave him a standing invitation to visit.

A previous planned trip was canceled abruptly last year for what the White House described as “scheduling reasons.” Both the announcement and the cancellation of that visit came on short notice and caught the Irish government by surprise, with Mr. Varadkar telling state radio that the news had come “a little bit out of the blue.”

The two leaders met at the White House last year, and again in March.

Mr. Trump last went to Ireland in 2014, when he visited his newly purchased Doonbeg resort. He was greeted at Shannon Airport by Michael Noonan, then the Irish finance minister, who waited at the steps of his plane with a group of musicians in traditional costumes.

To commence planning for next month’s visit, Secret Service agents were reported to have traveled to Ireland several weeks ago. An Irish government official familiar with the preparations said that Mr. Trump was unlikely to visit Dublin or any other major town or city because of security and logistical considerations.

Mr. Trump and his policies are not widely popular in Ireland, and Mr. Varadkar acknowledged last week that there were likely to be protests during his visit.

“A lot of people would be very critical of President Trump, including me on occasions, on issues around climate, for example, on his opposition to free trade, on the criticisms that he has made of the European Union, on issues such as women’s rights,” he said.

“I have the opportunity, as I’ve had in the past, to raise these issues with him in person,” Mr. Varadkar added, “but I understand that other people will wish to do so by means of protest. And in a democracy, protest is allowed and is welcome.”