LABOUR PARTY LEADER Ivana Bacik has said she expects President Catherine Connolly to express her views to Donald Trump when the US president pays her a visit this month. 

Trump will spend just under 48 hours in Ireland where it’s expected he’ll meet with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Connolly. 

Martin will hold a bilateral meeting in Farmleigh, while the US president is set for a “courtesy visit” at Áras an Uachtaráin.  

The Labour Party, along with the Social Democrats, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and People Before Profit, supported Connolly’s candidacy.

At the Labour Party think-in in Galway, Bacik pointed to the last debate before the presidential election, stating that Connolly made clear that if elected president, she would meet with the US president. 

“She [Connolly] spoke very robustly about the normalisation of war back in March and I think she will express those views, and I would hope she does, in a private visit with President Trump,” said the Labour leader. 

During the presidential election, Connolly described Trump as “somebody who armed and funded genocide”.

However, in the final debate of the presidential campaign on RTÉ’s Primetime, Connolly was asked if she would tell Trump that she believes the US enabled genocide in Gaza.

She replied that as president, she would meet “anyone that the government invites into the country – that will be part of my role”.

When again pressed on this during the Primetime debate about a potential meeting with Trump, Connolly said she will “represent the people of Ireland as best I can”.

She added that the role of president “is a different role for me”.

She was once more asked if she would describe the US as enabling genocide should she meet Trump as president.

“It’s a speculative question,” replied Connolly, “and so it will absolutely depend on what’s on the agenda.

“If it’s just a meet and greet, then I will meet and greet. If the discussion is genocide, that’s a completely different thing.”

However, she said doubted that a discussion of Gaza would be on the agenda, “especially with the president who has a symbolic role in that sense of meeting and greeting them”.

“I have no difficulty in fulfilling my role in meeting people,” she added.

Labour taking part in protests

Widespread protests against the visit are expected, with Bacik confirming that the Labour Party will take part in the protests.

“There’s already that engagement among activists on the left, different parties, so there’s already planning in place,” she said. 

She said the plans have not been set in stone as they are waiting to see what shape the visit take, with the details of the president’s movements not being made public.

“The Labour Party has been clear: we don’t want to see a red carpet rolled out for Donald Trump. He has been responsible for bringing about increasing authoritarianism across the globe, bringing about illegal wars, tearing up international agreements on climate change, tearing up respect for the rule of law internationally, and indeed at home in America, domestically, we’ve seen a sort of creeping fascism under his rule,” said the Labour leader.

There is no public support for the visit of Trump, according to Bacik, who said that the Irish people have been very distressed by Israel’s war in Gaza and war in Ukraine.

“I think people are, rightly, very, very resistant to and hostile to Trump’s politics. I think we’ll see that expressed by people in any way they can once Trump is here,” said Bacik.