An Irish politician gave U.S. President Donald Trump a backhanded compliment when he described his surprise at the American leader's appearance upon greeting him during his brief visit to Ireland.
Pat Breen is Ireland's minister of state for trade, employment and business, and the Teachta Dála—a representative in the Irish parliament's lower house—for County Clare, in which President Trump's Doonbeg golf resort sits.
Breen was among those who greeted Trump and First Lady Melania Trump as they got off Air Force Two following its arrival at west Ireland's Shannon Airport on Wednesday. The pair had flown from the U.K., where they had just completed a formal state visit.
"Mr Trump looked very different from what the pictures show. In fact, he is a fine looking man and very pleasant," Breen told The Irish Times.
"We talked about the important role that the resort in Doonbeg plays in [the] local economy. He said he was looking forward to playing a round of golf.
"We met again after the bilateral meeting he said he was looking forward to some rest, that it had been a busy week between London, Paris and Ireland. He wrote 'I Love Ireland' in the visitors book then. He has a genuine interest in Ireland. He said he would be back again."
President Trump, meanwhile, committed a faux pas during his news conference alongside Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, when appeared to draw a comparison between America's southern border issue and the Brexit-related border problem with Northern Ireland.
"Probably you'll ask me about Brexit because I just left some very good people who are very much involved with Brexit as you know, and I think it will all work out very well," Trump said.
"And also for you, with your wall, your border. We have a border situation in the United States and you have one over here, but I hear it's going to work out very well."
Varadkar interjected during Trump's border comments to point out that Ireland wanted to avoid a hard border or a wall between the north and south of the island, which Brexit—also praised by the president as "very, very good for Ireland" despite its clear opposition—threatens to create.
Trump's trip to the U.K. was marred by mass protests against his visit. He also broke diplomatic conventions by intervening in the Brexit debate and the Conservative Party leadership process, which will select who should replace Theresa May as the country's prime minister.
The U.S. president now heads to Normandy to take part in ceremonies that mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, a pivotal operation in 1944 that helped bring WWII to a victorious end by quickening the defeat of the Nazis in Europe.
