Trump strikes $6BILLION deal with Ireland to bankroll US jobs after claims the Irish are ‘stealing’ American companies

While President Trump’s administration pushes aggressive ‘America First’ trade policies and threatens sweeping tariffs on European goods, this tiny nation of five million has been quietly funding American jobs.

Rather than just exporting goods to the US and getting hit by tariffs, Irish companies are physically setting up shop in America, creating a ‘mutually beneficial’ boom proving the transatlantic relationship is a two-way street.

Replacing the traditional shamrock bowl this year with a staggering $6.1 billion investment pledge, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin is reportedly using today’s Oval Office visit to promise a massive boom in jobs and manufacturing in America.

Chief among the expectations is a massive five-year $5 billion commitment from eco-packaging giant Smurfit Westrock. While the construction giant Kingspan is transferring 1 billion dollars to them, the nutrition giant Glanbia is also transferring another 100 million dollars to the American economy.

And forget Guinness, Ireland’s newest export is high-tech muscle. Irish firms will deliver a massive increase in support for US data centers and Amazon headquarters, making technology construction Ireland’s biggest global business outside the food industry.

Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government’s trade and innovation development agency, is leading the charge, saying the CEL critical force, which is set to retrofit an Amazon facility in Williamsburg, Virginia, is expected to double its workforce to 500 by 2030.

In the past, when President Trump accused Ireland of taking advantage of the US economy, Aidan McKenna, Head of the Americas at Enterprise Ireland, pushed back to the Daily Mail when asked about this. He noted that he doesn’t understand the accusation at all, emphasizing that the relationship between the two nations is deeply ‘mutually beneficial.’

While it is true that Ireland benefits from the presence of US companies, McKenna emphasized that Irish companies are highly reciprocal. Today, they are responsible for creating more than 110,000 jobs in the United States and have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the American economy.

The Irish leader (right) and O’Shea present the traditional shamrock bowl to Donald Trump at a St. Patrick’s Day reception in the East Room of the White House in March 2025

Rather than just exporting goods to the US and getting hit by tariffs, Irish companies are physically setting up shop in America, creating a ‘mutually beneficial’ boom proving the transatlantic relationship is a two-way street

In fact, Irish investment has reached a staggering $389 billion by 2024. This huge financial footprint means that on a per capita basis Ireland is the number one investor in the US, placing the small country in fifth place overall in the league of foreign direct investments into the country.

The need to highlight these monumental contributions has never been more urgent. In just the last few weeks, the transatlantic trading landscape has been defined by unprecedented legal blows.

On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s original tariffs, ruling that his administration lacked the legal authority to enact them. But the relief didn’t even last the weekend.

The administration almost immediately invoked vague legislation, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, to impose a new, temporary 10 percent global import surcharge on foreign goods that went into effect Feb. 24.

This absolute coup threw global trade into chaos and triggered a massive lawsuit on March 5; where 24 US states sued the administration to block new tariffs.

But as the Trump administration shifts its geoeconomic policy toward aggressive tariffs, how will an export-dependent country respond?

Asked if he thought Trump knew what he was doing on tariffs, McKenna graciously offered a simple “no comment.”

Rather than panic, McKenna’s advice to European countries and Irish businesses doing business with the Trump administration is based on pragmatism and stable relationship building.

‘So what did we do for our customers and our businesses in Ireland when the tariffs happened? So we said, stay calm, talk to your customers, come to market and find a solution,” McKenna explained. ‘You know, jobs are hard earned and it’s really important to maintain that and maintain relationships. And a lot of people misunderstand that this market is highly transactional, but it’s actually not. It’s built on relationships.’

Martin speaks at the Irish Funds National Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., during his visit to the United States on Monday

JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance greet Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin and his wife Mary O’Shea for a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at the Vice President’s home

While it is true that Ireland benefits from the presence of US companies, McKenna emphasized that Irish companies are highly reciprocal. Today, they are responsible for creating more than 110,000 jobs in the United States and have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the American economy.

To weather the storm of political accusations and potential tariffs in the US, McKenna advises Irish businesses to ‘remain calm’ and focus hard on maintaining long-term partnerships with US customers

Following escalating transatlantic trade tensions, Ireland has doubled down on its diversification strategy to reduce overexposure to any single market; This is a hard-learned lesson from the economic fallout from Brexit.

McKenna’s stark warning to businesses navigating this unstable era is simple: ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket in this economy.’

This warning is no longer just good business advice but also aggressive government policy. On 4 March the Irish Government published the first progress report on its ‘action plan on market diversification’.

To guard against this definitive surge in trade in the US, Enterprise Ireland has actively launched certain tariff relief grants, including a Market Research Grant of up to €35,000, to help Irish companies understand how to evade US trade barriers or find entirely new markets. They also recently led their largest ever trade mission to the Netherlands to secure high-tech construction contracts in mainland Europe.

To weather the storm of political accusations and potential tariffs in the US, McKenna advises Irish businesses to ‘keep calm’ and focus hard on maintaining long-term partnerships with their US customers. He argues that the key to surviving in a tariff-heavy environment is to deliver undeniable quality.

Overall, the relationship is a unique diplomatic and economic bond that goes far beyond wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, McKenna says.

‘Ireland has fundamentally intertwined its economic success with that of America,’ said McKenna.

And as for whether this strategic, boundary-pushing partnership will extend to talks about Greenland?

“Let’s not even go there,” McKenna joked.