A former Wexford TD and Foreign Affairs spokesperson has described President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “one of the most dreadful and humiliating interactions” he has ever witnessed in politics.
Speaking about the meeting’s implications, Brendan Howlin warned that the Trump administration has overturned decades of American foreign policy and signalled that aggression will no longer be challenged.
The former Labour Party leader said European nations, particularly those on NATO’s eastern flank, are deeply concerned about the shift in U.S. strategy.
Speaking to South East Radio News, Mr Howlin gave his reaction to events that transpired in the Oval Office:
“I watched it live. I’ve seen many disturbing interactions in politics, but quite honestly, I’ve never witnessed one as dreadful, as humiliating and with such frightful consequences as that particular interaction yesterday (Friday). It seems to me particularly that the goading of Vice President Vance seemed to be a deliberate ambush for a man who obviously was under huge pressure [Zelensky] He came obviously without all the issues that he wanted to discuss being decided, but it is quite clear that the Trump administration has changed decades of American policy on its head. It now simply sees might as right, that the aggressor can be rewarded, that there’s no criticism at all for Putin, and in fact, the only criticism is for the party that is the aggrieved party, the person that is trying to defend democracy, defend their own territorial integrity. So it is quite shocking. And I know from the reaction across the world, I think that basically the democratic part of the world is reeling from that and doesn’t know how to deal with it.”
When asked if he thought that Taoiseach Mícháel Martin should still visit the United States on St Patrick’s Day in light of yesterday’s events, Mr. Howlin replied:
“Well, I said on South East Radio recently that an invitation from the President of the United States should be accepted. It is a tradition that goes back to Eisenhower’s days in the 1950s. And it’s a very precious opportunity for Ireland to present its case, not only to the American President but to leaders of Congress and to the American public. So I think the invitation had to be availed of. But we saw how the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was handled in the Oval Office and the President of France a couple of days earlier. So it would be a real challenge for our Taoiseach, but he’s a very experienced person. He’s a longtime politician. He’s held an important strategic diplomatic role, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the past. So I think he will be well prepared. But I don’t know how prepared you can be for the Trump White House. And it is quite likely that he may take the opportunity to attack Ireland, attack our balance of payments differential with the United States, the fact that we export so much to them and import an awful lot less. Because it is quite clear he hates the European Union. He wants to damage the European Union because it is too strong a bloc that might pose an economic challenge to the United States.”
