US President Donald Trump congratulated Varadkar on his “great victory”.
US President Donald Trump congratulated Leo Varadkar on a “great victory” in a brief phone conversation with Ireland’s new Taoiseach on Tuesday.
The press pool at the White House were invited into the oval office to watch on as Trump exchanged pleasantries with the Fine Gael leader, with Mark Knoller of CBS claiming that Trump waited for at least 90 seconds for Varadkar to pick up the phone.
Pres pool watched Pres Trump on hold for at least 90 seconds waiting for the new Irish Prime Minister to pick up. pic.twitter.com/dG2uK9UlGz
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 27, 2017
During the conversation, some of which was recorded by RTÉ’s Washington Correspondent & US Bureau Chief Caitriona Perry, and can be seen here, Trump also talked about his connections with Irish people based in the US.
“Congratulations on your great victory,” Trump said to the Taoiseach.
“We have so many people from Ireland in this country. I know so many of them, I feel I know all of them.
“But I just wanted to congratulate you; that was a great victory that you had.”
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