‘Daddy' Trump meets Nato, while defence, trade and Gaza dominate EU summit
Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Jack Horgan-Jones to look back on the week in politics:
US President
Donald Trump
was the main attraction at a landmark Nato summit on Wednesday with
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte
calling him 'Daddy' during their press conference. Trump got what he came for with Nato member states agreeing to an increase of
5 per cent of GDP in defence spending
.
Over at the EU leaders summit on Thursday, defence spending was also high on the agenda with Ireland backing the
EU's €150bn defence plan
.
The war in Gaza was highlighted too with
Taoiseach Micheál Martin
unable to comprehend how Europe doesn't seem capable of putting any pressure on Israel to stop it. And with Trump's tariffs pause set to end on July 9th, Ireland and other EU countries will be forgiven for looking at India and China as greater trading partners.
Do policy interventions like reviewing RPZs compensate for
the delayed release of the Government's housing plan
? The document won't be published until after the summer.
Presidential candidates are still pretty thin on the ground with
Fine Gael's Seán Kelly
saying he 'could do a lot' as president but stopped short of declaring he actually will enter the race.
Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:
The endurance test that
Irish concert-goers
have to go through is worth it, Democratic mayoral primary
Zohran Mamdani
shocks as New York swelters, and
Jaws and its Irish connection
.
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