People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has dubbed Taoiseach Micheál Martin a “bootlicker” for proceeding with his St. Patrick’s Day visit to Donald Trump.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has described Donald Trump as ‘gracious and courteous” on a recent podcast, which Murphy claimed is “embarrassing.”
The Dublin South-West TD said that the Taoiseach was “bootlicking” and that the St. Patrick’s Day visit should not go ahead on moral grounds.
“Taoiseach Micheál Martin is preparing for his St Patrick’s day visit to meet Donald Trump in the White House, and as it approaches, the Taoiseach continues to debase himself by bowing ever deeper before Trump,” he said.
“It’s almost two weeks since the US began its unprovoked war against Iran and still the Taoiseach refuses to condemn the US for what everyone knows it is doing. Now we have learned that Micheál Martin has described Donald Trump as ‘gracious and courteous,” he said.
Murphy asserted, “Trump is an abuser of women, he has armed a genocide, committed multiple acts of unprovoked war and presided over ICE killing peaceful protesters in the US. The Taoiseach’s comments are beyond belief.”
The People Before Profit TD claimed, “a large and growing proportion of the public don’t want Micheál Martin to meet Trump on our national day and they are outraged at the Taoiseach’s complete lack of moral backbone.”
Murphy noted a contrast between the Taoiseach’s comments on Trump and his comments on President Catherine Connolly.
Connolly said that the violations of international law during the Iran War were an “assault on international law,” saying “what we have witnessed in recent days in the Middle East, and beyond, are not political disputes. They are deliberate assaults on international law, the international laws that have underpinned global peace for eighty years. We must name them as such, without euphemism and without equivocation.”
The Taoiseach said that it was not the duty of the President to weigh in on international affairs, saying “it is important to recall that the responsibility for foreign affairs rests with the government.”
Murphy said “morethan anyone, it is the Taoiseach who has used euphemisms and equivocations to avoid naming the wars and flagrant breaking of international law.
“In describing Trump as gracious and courteous, the Taoiseach’s conduct has reached excruciating levels and has become a national embarrassment. There is no other way to describe the Taoiseach’s conduct and comments other than as bootlicking,” he stated.
“The Taoiseach should not go to the White House for St Patrick’s Day. It’s time for the Taoiseach’s euphemisms, equivocation and bootlicking to stop”.