IN THE AFTERMATH of the Oval Office meeting yesterday between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and US president Donald Trump, both sides are putting forth different narratives on social media. 

While Martin is pressing home the fact that he told the US president that trade between the countries is a “two-way street”, Trump has been hammering home a vow to “take back” pharmaceutical companies that have “left”.

‘Take back what was stolen’

Trump is the owner of Truth Social, a social media site that was founded in October 2021 but launched in February 2022. 

The US president first raised the prospect of creating his own social media network after he was banned from X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook following the US Capitol attack in January 2021. 

He has since been re-instated onto both sites, but still regularly posts to his own Truth Social, which is modelled heavily on X.

Trump has posted two clips of his Oval Office meeting to Truth Social, one clip featuring his opening remarks welcoming Martin and the other focusing on the US “taking back a lot of what was stolen”.

In this second clip that Trump posted, he vowed to “take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries”, something he blamed on “grossly incompetent US leadership”.

He then referenced Ireland and US pharmaceutical companies relocating here and said: “I would have never let that happen – impossible for that to have happened – but we’re going to take back our wealth and we’re going to take back a lot of the companies that left.”

Trump then says in the clip that he was “so angry” by what had happened to the US during Biden’s term and claimed that the “worst people” were allowed into the US.

Trump’s caption accompanying the clip highlighted his vow to “take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries” and his promise to “take back a lot of the companies that left”.

Trump later shared a Fox News clip to his Truth Social featuring his Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, in which Lutnick said tariffs will ensure pharmaceutical companies “come back to America”.

Taking advantage 

Meanwhile, the official White House account on X also focused on Trump railing against Ireland for “taking” US pharmaceutical companies. 

During Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Martin yesterday, he said Ireland was “lucky” Trump wasn’t US president when many US pharmaceutical companies began to relocate to Ireland as he would have slapped 200% tariffs on them. 

Trump the 200% tariffs would have ensured they were “never able to sell anything into the United States”.

And when asked if Ireland was taking advantage of the US, Trump replied: “Of course they are.”

He then pivoted back to pharmaceutical companies in Ireland and said: “I have great respect for Ireland and what they did, but the US shouldn’t have let it happen, we had stupid leaders who didn’t have a clue what was happening and all of a sudden Ireland has our pharmaceutical companies.

“Ireland has got the entire US pharmaceutical industry in its grip.”

Trump added: “Ireland was very smart, they took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn’t know what they were doing. It’s too bad that happened.”

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Trump went on to remark that the Irish are “smart people” who “took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies”.

The US president also said the US has a “massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart, they took our pharmaceutical companies”.

Trump then said that “the EU’s been very tough, and it’s our turn”.

The above exchange, in which Trump bemoans a supposed “massive trade deficit with Ireland”,  was reposted on X by the official White House account.

.@POTUS: "We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart, they took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn't know what they were doing... The EU's been very tough, and it's our turn too. We get a turn at that also." pic.twitter.com/EOexNTtgiT

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 12, 2025

But while Trump and the White House used their social media output to issue a vow to “take back” companies that left the US, Martin’s social media accounts pointed to the Taoiseach making it known that trade “is a two-way street”.

Martin said Ireland is “investing a lot more in America” and pointed to Ryanair and AerCap, who Martin said buys more Boeing planes between them than any other company outside the US.

Trade is a two way street. Ireland is investing a lot in the US.

🇮🇪 & 🇺🇸 have a very good relationship - it’s a historic relationship that will continue to develop & endure into the future. pic.twitter.com/eGDGKU0tWU

— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) March 12, 2025

He also remarked that there are around 700 Irish companies based in America and “creating thousands of jobs in America”.