US President Donald Trump has so far failed to call Ireland's new Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, despite him being appointed almost three weeks ago in a rare violation of tradition. The fact that the two countries' leaders haven’t spoken on the telephone yet was revealed by Micheál Martin himself when he spoke to the country's parliament.
The previous Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, got his first call from the president of the US, Ireland's long-time ally, within two weeks of his appointment in 2017. His successor, Martin, has already spoken with several European leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson three days into his new office, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and European Council chief Charles Michel.
Trump and the White House have not elaborated about the unusual lack of contact between the two heads of goverment, yet it is known that Martin made critical remarks about POTUS in the past. He criticised the president's comments about a group of progressive Democratic congresswomen in 2019 and suggested that European countries must openly oppose the rhetoric of POTUS, when necessary.
“There comes a stage when European politicians need to stand up, as well, for core values and not be afraid to say we fundamentally disagree with President Trump's approach to progressive politicians who are making a difference in the United States", Martin said in June 2019.
Trump didn’t comment on the remark at the time and it’s unclear if he was even informed of it at all.
The US president's habits in conveying telephone calls with international leaders have been a topic of debate, specifically in light of a recent report by CNN based on accounts of anonymous sources, claiming that Trump treated female heads of state with particular disdain. The report also claimed that POTUS bullied several countries' leaders, namely France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, and Australia’s Scott Morrison.