'Nice smile': Donald Trump stops leader call to flirt with Irish reporter
Another phone call with a fellow world leader has descended into farce for US President Donald Trump.
After being kept waiting for about a minute and half in his phone call to Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Donald Trump quickly turned attention away from the call by appearing to flirt with an Irish reporter.
Shortly after telling Mr Varadkar he feels like he knows every Irish-American personally, Mr Trump called over a member of the “beautiful” Irish press.
When RTÉ’s Washington correspondent Caitríona Perry arrived at the Oval Desk, Mr Trump seemed to lose all interest in her Prime Minister on the other end of the phone.
Video of the bizarre moment when President @realDonaldTrump called me over during his call with Taoiseach @campaignforLeo Varadkar. @rtenews pic.twitter.com/TMl2SFQaji
— Caitriona Perry (@CaitrionaPerry) June 27, 2017
“We have all of this Irish, beautiful Irish press here. Where are you from? Come here, come here,” the president said, beckoning to Perry.
"She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well.”
Mr Varadkar used the opportunity to pass a message to Ms Perry via the distracted POTUS.
"He thanks you for the newspapers, Caitríona."
Ms Perry posted video of the “bizarre” exchange to her Twitter account and told RTÉ her crew had not expected to be invited into the Oval Office.
"Usually we would shoot from outside the window of the White House and that's what we were expecting today but instead we were invited inside to witness the President's call to the Taoiseach,” she said.
“When we went in he was already on the phone but I managed to catch his eye and he called me over."
As has become customary online when Donald Trump reaches out to world leaders, many Americans have been issuing public apologies to Ireland on behalf of their countryman.
