Irish Americans based in Ireland have heavily criticised Donald Trump's upcoming visit to Ireland, with most people expressing a sense of embarrassment rather than excitement, according to reports in The Irish Independent.
Mr Trump is set to visit Ireland on Saturday and Sunday, where he expected to meet with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, President Catherine Connolly and Tánaiste Simon Harris, as well as attend the Amgen Irish Open golf tournament in at his resort in Doonbeg.
However, this upcoming visit has not gone down well with Irish Americans who are currently living in Ireland, with one claiming that Mr Trump is using this visit for his own personal gain.
Making this claim, 43 year old Toni Rae, a retail worker who has been living in Co Donegal over the last 10 years, has said that the Government's decision to host Mr Trump “seems a little bootlicky to me”.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, she said: “He would grab on to whoever he thinks is going to take him somewhere".
She also went on to claim that Mr Trump's political views have sneaked into Ireland, adding: “It feels like a lot more Irish people approve of his tactics and his anti-immigration stuff".
Elsewhere, Nicholas Hawley, from New England, who has been living in Limerick for the past two years with his husband, has called Trump's presidency "a joke that went too far", and had inspired her decision to leave the USA in the first place.
He said: “We had a Pride flag hanging off of our front porch. The number of times I stood in my own front yard and someone in a pick-up truck would drive by and yell the word ‘f****t’, increased substantially over his term".
But he does hope that President Catherine Connolly will bring "an edge" during her meeting with Mr Trump at the Áras.
“I hope she holds him to account in some degree. In the past, she’s called him volatile, she’s called him a bully, so it’s very clear what her perspective is on him", he said.
Another American native, Lauren McCauley who has been working for a construction company in Galway for the past five years, feels uneasy about this visit, insisting that no amount of flattery from the Irish public will end the "nasty" comments she receives from Irish people due to Trump being the US Presidency.
Concerned that this visit will not bring "the same feeling or energy like when [Joe] Biden came", she added: "A lot more people were probably excited and receptive [for Biden]".
“Just to lump us all into one category, it’s like ‘Americans, they’re stupid, they’re this, they’re that’. Sometimes it is kind of hurtful".
Elsewhere, Carter Maynard, a content creator originally from West Virginia but living in Cork, called Trump's presidency, a "nightmare", while Chicago woman Lucy Trankima who lives in Dublin, called this upcoming visit "disgraceful" and that his presidency has caused her to disengage from the news.
“It just makes my skin crawl that he’s going to be here. It seems more like showboating and more like any attention for him because he’s a narcissist and it feeds his ego", she said.
On the other hand, Jana Lunden, founder of Irish conservative women's group, Natural Women's Council, has said that this visit can offer an opportunity to enhance the relationship between Ireland and the USA, which she called “extraordinary historic”.
“Whatever someone’s personal feelings about Donald Trump, he is the president of the United States,” she said. “Personal dislike shouldn’t get in the way of the respect Ireland and America have traditionally had for one another".
Ms Lunden, who is based in Co Meath for 23 years, said she is concerned that the Irish society is moving away from “evidence-based policy” and towards “ideology”.
She said: “I think we should be having that same open debate about so many issues: gender and critical race theory in schools, protection of women’s single-sex sports and spaces, migration, neutrality, funding foreign wars and freedom of speech".
Ms Lunden also hopes that Mr Trump's visit will encourage the Irish political class to “put the people back at the centre of decision”. (All quotes in this piece according to The Irish Independent).
Along with meeting several political leaders during his visit her, Mr Trump will also attend the Irish Open at the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg. He is also set to present the trophy to the winning player on Sunday. More on this here.
