President Donald Trump nearly had Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin laughing in his face as the entire world looked on.
In a rare moment captured on camera, Trump, 79, got a taste of his own medicine when he invited Martin, 65, to the White House this week for a meeting in front of the press.
At one point, one reporter asked the U.S. commander in chief about the ongoing Iran War, which eventually led to Martin being caught on camera having a hard time keeping a straight face.
On March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, a cultural holiday honoring the patron saint of Ireland, Trump held a Q&A with the press assembled in the Oval Office, where he was asked about United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision not to fully back the America-led conflict currently raging in the Middle East. He responded and then went into a bizarre rant about windmills.
“I’ve been very critical of Keir, and I did it in a friendly way,” the president responded, before adding, “I said if you don’t change your energy pro thing and get away from windmills and go back to oil and gas.”
After repeatedly mentioning oil deposits in the North Sea near the U.K., Trump began ranting, “But they have windmills all over the country destroying those gorgeous Scottish fields and those beautiful fields all over the windmills, which don’t work.”
The obsession with windmills did not end there. Trump then brought up China over and over again as he awkwardly weaved the conversation back to grumbling about the machines used to convert wind into usable energy.
“You know what China uses? Coal. They’re building 58 coal-fired plants right now, and that’s up to them,” the president stated. According to the AP, China is vastly expanding its coal, solar, and wind capabilities despite Trump insisting the Asian nation “doesn’t” use wind turbines.
While he was wrong about China embracing renewable energy, Trump vowed to destroy the American wind farm industry, telling the room, “These foolish countries that are buying windmills are putting them out of business. I’m proudly telling you that we’re going to try and have no windmills built in the United States.”
Trump’s erratic two-minute-long tirade about windmills was enough to produce a viral-worthy soundbite, but it was the Irish Taoiseach’s on-camera reaction that caught a lot of people’s attention online, as many noticed him visibly struggling to contain his laughter.
“[Micheál] Martin struggled not to laugh when Trump started talking about how bad windmills are,” an X user tweeted as the caption for a clip from the two world leaders’ St. Patrick’s Day sit-down.
MSN readers also weighed in on Trump not being seen as a serious statesman. For instance, one person commented, “What Trump doesn’t understand is that all the world leaders are laughing at him, shaking their heads behind his back. He relies on all the cowardly ‘yes’ people surrounding him to keep him happy.”
Another comment read, “The Irish PM must know that it is perfectly fine to laugh at Trump and his temper tantrums. Most world leaders laugh at Trump, of course, Trump is too stupid to realize that they are laughing at him, not with him. Trump is a total embarrassment to America and the American people.”
Another expressed, “As it goes, ‘Where ignorance is bliss, it’s folly to be wise!’ The Irish Prime Minister is fully aware that he is looking at an ignoramus of the first kind and wanted to burst out laughing. He will probably do that in his room. First of all, China has thousands of windmills all over their country and so [do] many developed countries around the world.”
A dejected person added, “Mad props to Mr Martin for containing his laughter.”
Over the last several years, the president has made going off about windmills part of his semi-regular routine when speaking to the press, whether the Trump International Scotland golf course owner was in the United States or overseas.
A presidential trip to Scotland in July 2025 featured Trump addressing reporters at Prestwick Airport while urging European countries to stop constructing windmills. Plus, he called wind turbines “ugly monsters” during a press conference with Prime Minister Starmer.
Trump’s grievances with wind-powered energy sources will likely be one of his go-to talking points for the foreseeable future, especially since he took losses in court over the issue. For example, a federal judge ruled in January against the administration’s attempt to halt the construction of an offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut.
