President Donald Trump has confused Ireland’s female president with a man, in an embarrassing St Patrick’s Day gaffe while hosting the country’s representatives.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump was asked about comments by Irish President Catherine Connelly, who recently hit out at the conflict in Iran as an illegal and illegitimate war.
“Who said that?” asked Trump, when a reporter sought a response.
“The Irish president,” replied the reporter.
Trump paused for a minute, before declaring: “Look, he’s lucky I exist.”
Seated next to Trump was Ireland’s Prime Minister, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who smiled awkwardly as the 79-year-old commander-in-chief misgendered Connelly, seemingly unaware that the head of state was, in fact, a woman.
Connelly was elected as Ireland’s 10th president in October 2025 with the support of Ireland’s left-leaning opposition parties, including Sinn Féin.
While Irish presidents hold a largely ceremonial role and do not have executive powers, they nonetheless represent Ireland on the world stage and are often seen as a unifying voice on major issues.
In a speech on International Women’s Day, the 68-year-old Irish president hit out at Trump’s war, saying the “violations of international law we are witnessing are shocking and numbing, but we cannot afford inaction.”
“What we have witnessed in recent days in the Middle East, and beyond, are not political disputes,” she added.
“We must name them as such, without euphemism and without equivocation.”
The comments put Martin in a challenging position ahead of his visit to Washington this week, with some in Ireland calling for him to boycott the trip.
However, he defied calls not to visit the U.S., and instead headlined a party at the Irish Embassy in D.C. on Sunday night, had breakfast at the residence of Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday morning, and then joined Trump at the Capitol for a St Patrick’s Day lunch.
On Monday evening, the Taoiseach was also due to present Trump with a bowl of shamrock as part of an annual St Patrick’s Day ceremony.
During their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, Martin took a back seat while Trump riffed about everything from golf and windmills to the war with Iran.
One day after urging European allies to “step up” and assist America in the Middle East, Trump also reversed course and lashed out at NATO for making a “very foolish mistake.”
“We don’t need any help,” Trump insisted, after most allied nations rejected his pleas to get involved.
“You know, despite the fact that we help them so much, we have thousands of soldiers in different countries all over the world, and they don’t want to help us, which is amazing. I mean, amazing,” he added.
Martin was relatively silent for the most part until Trump hit out at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not providing mine-sweepers.
As Trump pointed to a bust over his shoulder of Britain’s World War II leader, Trump repeated his insult that Starmer “is no Winston Churchill.”
The softly spoken Martin intervened.
“Keir Starmer has done a lot to reset the Irish-British relationship. I just want to put that on the record,” he told Trump.
“I do believe that he’s a very earnest, sound person that you have a capacity to get along with. You’ve got along with him before.”
