'Standing up sounds great and all of that, but be under no illusion that if there is an implosion in the US-EU relationship, everybody suffers,' Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said. Photograph: Alan BetsonTaoiseach Micheál Martin has urged caution on any confrontation between the EU and US president Donald Trump, warning that ordinary people would ultimately lose out. “But I would be cautious ... standing up sounds great and all of that, but be under no illusion that if there is an implosion in the US-EU relationship, everybody suffers,” he said in an interview with The Irish Times. “It’s all very well talking about anti-coercion measures and all of that – ultimately if you deploy those, well that’s it then. “Because the American system is different and president Trump has a different way of operating in terms of who he listens to and so on like that.

Source: The Irish Times February 02, 2026 07:33 UTC