Irish police stationed officers around every corner of the golf course for the presidential security operation, so one might expect them to know exactly who was on their side.
Instead, two uniformed gardaí apparently mistook a cameraman for an undercover officer and began discussing their tactics with him — a blunder that turned Trump’s security operation into a comedy of errors and left a BBC presenter struggling to keep a straight face.
The embarrassing mix-up became one of the stranger moments of President Donald Trump’s weekend visit to Ireland, where an enormous security operation surrounded his trip to his Doonbeg resort in County Clare for the Irish Open.
The Irish Mirror reported that BBC reporter Enda McClafferty revealed the mistake on air, while other reports said the deployment, accommodations and compensation frustrated rank-and-file officers.
For a visit meant to showcase Trump’s relationship with Ireland, the images were instead unusually chaotic.
McClafferty told BBC Sunday Politics that the incident happened while he was covering Trump’s visit.
“Yesterday two gardaí flagged down our cameraman and mistook him for an undercover Garda officer,” he told BBC Sunday Politics, “and started to talk tactics to him!”
Host Mark Carruthers responded with a stifled laugh, an understandable reaction to the sheer oddity of two officers apparently revealing operational information to a member of a news crew.
Social media users were just as amused.
“Unreal,” one person wrote on X. “Lol, only in Ireland,” another said. Someone else added: “Utter rubbish.”
“Not like the @gardainfo to be an embarrassment on the world stage, bloody morons,” another fumed.
The incident came as Irish police mounted a massive security operation for Trump, who spent the weekend traveling between Dublin and his resort in Doonbeg. McClafferty offered another glimpse of the deployment’s scale when he described the number of officers surrounding the golf course.
“We have more gardaí than we have spectators at the golf,” McClafferty said during his interview. “Around every bog corner, if you like, there’s a squad car.”
Trump’s visit produced another unusual sight: The president reportedly used an armored golf buggy to move around the course.
“Donald Trump has brought with him an armor-plated golf buggy, Mark, believe it or not and he hopes I think to get around the course today in that,” McClafferty revealed.
“I do believe it,” Carruthers replied.
Behind the scenes, however, the mood among some rank-and-file officers was considerably less humorous.
The Irish Mirror reported that the assignment angered some gardaí after officials told them to cover their own childcare and accommodation costs during the presidential visit to County Clare. Sources said the sudden deployment forced some officers to cancel plans, make expensive last-minute arrangements and left morale low.
“There are members who were notified to work five nights in Clare and were then told this week that they’re only working the weekend. It means they’ve had to spend a fortune on accommodation and change plans they had made just two weeks ago,” another source said.
Other sources complained that officials housed some officers assigned to Doonbeg in Galway, forcing them to travel more than 80 miles.
“There’s a use and abuse policy from management and they’re expecting lads to just show up,” another source said. “It’s not good enough and there’s a feeling that people will refuse to turn up, go sick, or even walk if this happens again,” they added.
Another source described the operation as a “s**t show.”
“Patrol cars are being grounded to ensure members can just be given breaks at their home station. This will have a detrimental impact on policing in Dublin,” a source said.
Garda Representative Association President Niall Hodgins also accused Garda management of placing extraordinary demands on officers.
The Garda Press Office pushed back against criticism of the operation, stating that the force “does not comment on or speculate about operational matters” while maintaining its capacity to manage high-profile security detail. Defending its operational strength, a spokesperson noted that An Garda Síochána boasts the second-highest number of personnel in the state’s history, pointing to more than 11,000 applications submitted over a 12-month period.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin also expressed confidence in the operation. He said he had spoken with the Garda commissioner and believed the force had enough resources to handle Trump’s visit.
The security controversy unfolded alongside protests over Trump’s visit and a politically charged trip that included meetings with Irish leaders and a stop at his Doonbeg resort.
Trump faced protests in Dublin, with comedian Rosie O’Donnell urging demonstrators to turn out for the “No Welcome for Warmonger Trump” protest. Thousands assembled at Parnell Square’s Garden of Remembrance before marching down O’Connell Street to Ireland’s parliament building, displaying signs that featured sharp anti-Trump messaging and references to unsealed Epstein documents.
Trump also announced that tariffs on Irish whiskey would be removed. “Everybody’s been bugging me,” he said, according to the BBC. “They are saying ‘would you do me a favor? It’s so unfair what’s going on.’ Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey and I said, on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey.”
