Donald Trump tells Micheál Martin to buy US liquified natural gas

By Rebecca Black, Press Association in Washington, DC

Ireland can address a “tremendous” trade imbalance with the US by buying American liquified natural gas (LNG), President Donald Trump has said.

Trump said Ireland had “better do something” to bring the trade deficit down.

Speaking at the Friends of Ireland Luncheon for St Patrick’s Day at the US Capitol Building, Trump said: “We have a tremendous deficit, by the way. I looked at the numbers.

“You guys are much better business people than our past politicians.”

So we want to sell a little to you, and the deficit will come down, down, down, and everybody's going to be happy

Turning to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, he added: “We have to talk about that deficit – are we allowed to talk about that today?”

Trump referenced the more than six billion dollars being invested into the US by Irish companies, before adding: “And I’m hopeful that we’ll soon reach a deal to sell American liquefied natural gas – and that’ll bring down your deficit a lot – so I think you have to make this deal with us, you better do something.

“But these companies are going to be fuelling your homes and factories and all of the other things.

“We got a lot of, we have a lot of energy in this country. We have more than anybody, most energy of any country in the world, by far.

“So we want to sell a little to you, and the deficit will come down, down, down, and everybody’s going to be happy.

“So you gotta buy a lot of our stuff.”