Trump speaks at St. Patrick's Day lunch
Irish leader Leo Varadkar, at a St. Patrick's Day luncheon with President Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Thursday, recalled how Mr. Trump several years back asked him to prevent a wind farm from being placed near one of his properties in Ireland.
Varadkar was the minister for tourism at the time, and Mr. Trump called him out of the blue to ask him to intervene. He was shocked Mr. Trump would call him directly.
"Surely, a businessman like Donald Trump would write a letter first and we'd organize a meeting," he told the crowd. "But as we all know, President Trump doesn't work like that. He's a very, very direct man, likes to get things done. So at the other end of the phone was Donald Trump saying to me that he'd bought this resort in Ireland in County Clare, this beautiful golf resort called Dune Beck. But there was a problem nearby, somebody was trying to build a wind farm. And that of course could have a real impact on tourism and the beauty of the landscape. So I endeavored to do what I could do about it and I ran to the county council and inquired about the planning commission. And subsequently the planning commission was declined and the wind farm was never built, thus, the land scape being preserved. And the president has very kindly given me credit for that."
