FROM OUR OVAL OFFICE EDITOR, SHAN WHALING

THERE WAS AN awkward moment during Donald Trump’s meeting with Irish leader Micheal Martin, when the US President did his usual of complaining that US businesses were being lured to Ireland by tax incentives, when you just felt that Mr Martin either might have – or, indeed, should have – pointed out to his host that he owned a business in Ireland. But he didn’t.

“It was a chance to explain that US firms were there as much for specific Irish facilities, talent and expertise,” said a former IRA gunrunner who has now nailed his colors to the GOP mast. “You want a world-class golf links, you have to open it in Ireland, or maybe Scotland. You really can’t get anything like it here in the States. The Donald knows that. And he knows that US tech and pharma companies don’t just choose to base in Ireland for tax reasons. Anyway, it would have given him something to ponder, as well as making him look slightly uncomfortable – for which Mr Martin and Ireland would probably never have been forgiven. You can’t win, can you?”