And one thing’s clear from the delight on the Upper Bann representative’s face – St Patrick’s Day in Portadown was never like this. The photo shows Mr Buckley grinning from ear to ear as he meets the president in what appears to be the location of a Friends of Ireland lunch in Washington today (12th), attended by many politicians from Northern Ireland and the Republic as part of regular St Patrick’s celebrations organised by America’s political movers and shakers. And the 33-year-old, who is the DUP’s economy and business spokesman, even appears to have slipped a friendly arm onto Mr Trump’s shoulder during the informal meet. The image was posted to Mr Buckley’s account on social network X, formerly Twitter, shortly before 7pm today UK-time. He captioned it: “An honour to meet the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. “We share a special relationship with the United States - I will grasp the opportunity to build on it and promote Northern Ireland." Fellow DUP MLA Edwin Poots was also pictured at the lunch, which was hosted by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson. Politicians from the Republic present included Taoiseach Micheal Martin – though from the evidence that’s emerged so far, nobody got quite as up close and personal as Portadown native Mr Buckley. His photo was taken at one of a series of St Patrick’s Day events taking place in the US Capitol, after one of which deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly stated Mr Trump took “a huge amount of interest in Northern Ireland” during discussions. “I had a really good conversation with the president," she said. “We started out discussing Ukraine and the need for a peaceful resolution to that situation. “But of course, we moved on to talk about Northern Ireland. He showed a huge amount of interest in Northern Ireland, a recognition of Northern Ireland – particularly the golf, it has to be said. “We talked about the longstanding relationship that the US has had with Northern Ireland has been obviously beneficial to Northern Ireland, but I think mutually beneficial to both jurisdictions.” Notable by their absence from the current Washington delegation are Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Alliance, all of whom have decided to boycott the St Patrick’s events. First Minister Michelle O’Neill announced her boycott is due to Mr Trump’s attitude towards the conflict between Israel and Palestine, maintaining she was “taking a stand against injustice”. Her comments came in the wake of Mr Trump’s suggestion that the United States could take over Gaza, resettling its population in the process. Meanwhile, Alliance leader Naomi Long said she would “make no pretence of respecting” Mr Trump, and the SDLP also cited the Israel and Palestine conflict as the reason for their own boycott. But when the US president was asked what he thought about the three parties’ boycotts today, he said he hadn’t heard about them.