DONALD Trump insisted he “doesn’t want to do anything to hurt Ireland” during today’s crunch White House chat with Taoiseach Micheal Martin. The US President — who was gifted with a St Patrick’s Day bowl of shamrock by the Taoiseach — declared: “I love your country. I love it.” Trump hailed "the long and unique friendship between Americans and the Irish" and added: "I love the Irish. I've had great, great friends over the years, and I love the Irish - special people - and I've been to Ireland many times. "I'm always struck by the awesome beauty of the Emerald Isle and the strength and warmth and grit and grace of the Irish people. Very few people can compare." The president told the crowd in the White House: "Even though it's still a few days away, I want to be the first to wish each and every one of you a very happy St Patrick's Day." Trump’s warm words come amid concerns he will try to bring American pharma companies based in Ireland back to the US through tax and tariff incentives. He accused Ireland of stealing US drug firms with lower tax rates — and blamed America’s “stupid leaders” for letting it happen. And Trump warned the “massive” trade deficit between the two nations needs to be addressed. He said: “We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from presidents that didn’t know what they were doing. "It’s too bad that happened. It’s a tremendous job. The Irish are smart. You are smart people and you took our pharmaceutical companies and other companies through taxation. “They made it very good for -companies to move over there. We had presidents and people who were involved in this that had no idea what they were doing and they lost big segments of our economy.” Tensions were high in the Irish camp ahead of the meeting after Trump’s shocking Oval Office clash with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky just two weeks ago. However, the St Patrick’s Day pow-wow proved to be a warm love-in between the Taoiseach and President Trump — despite news breaking of new EU tariffs. There are real concerns this trade war between the EU and the US could damage the Irish economy, with Ireland exporting €72billion of goods to the States last year — the majority of which are drugs from Yank firms based in Ireland. And Trump said the Taoiseach he was “lucky” he wasn’t President when American pharma companies set up in Ireland as he would have taxed them back to the States. He told Martin: “When the -pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland I would have said, ‘That’s OK if you want to go to Ireland, I think it’s great. “‘But if you wanna sell anything into the US I’m going to put a 200 per cent tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell -anything into the US’. “You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here.” Trump also accused the EU of being “very bad” to America after Brussels announced €26billion of tariffs on American goods, such as bourbon, motorbikes and boats, that enter the 27-country bloc. This was in retaliation to Trump imposing a 25 per cent tariff on all steel and aluminium coming from the EU into the States. Blasting back, the US President threatened to impose tariffs on European cars imported into the US and claimed he will “win the financial battle”. He warned: “Whatever they charge us, we’ll charge them.” However, Trump pledged he did not want to do anything to damage Ireland and would work on a deal with Martin to address the trade deficit. Asked about Irish people living in the US, Trump said: “I think the Irish love Trump. We won the Irish with a tremendous amount of votes. I want to thank you very much. “We won in the Eighties with Irish. I got the Irish vote. I think I have it locked up pretty good unless I did something very stupid like drained your wonderful place of all its companies. 'WE WANT FAIRNESS' “If I drained Ireland of all the companies maybe I’d lose the Irish vote, I don’t know.” And Trump, who owns a golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, continued: “I love your country. I love it. “I’ve been there many times as you know and we don’t want to do anything to hurt Ireland. “But we do want fairness and he (Martin) understands that.” The Taoiseach repeatedly tried to butt in during the lengthy White House press conference but was drowned out by the media as they shouted questions at the President. “We do have a massive deficit with Ireland because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away from Presidents that didn’t know what they were doing."Donald Trump When he did break through, Martin pointed out the economic relationship between Ireland and the US is a “two-way street”. And he highlighted that Ryanair is one of the biggest buyers of planes from American company Boeing — a fact that seemed to go down well with President Trump. The US leader later bigged-up the Taoiseach, as he declared Martin would solve the Irish housing crisis. He added: “You know why they have a housing crisis? Because they are doing so well. They can’t -produce houses fast enough. “That’s a good problem not a bad problem. Everybody should have that problem, that’s OK. I know this gentleman, he’ll get it solved.” 'TOUGH PEOPLE' Away from politics, Trump was asked by one reporter who his favourite Irish person was — with the US President choosing UFC star Conor McGregor. Pushed for his pick, he said: “There’s so many! Are you kidding me! I do happen to like your fighter. He’s got the best tattoos I’ve ever seen. Conor’s great, right? “You’ve got a lot of great fighters actually. I don’t know what that is. Ireland’s always had a lot of good fighter. You know why? Cause they are tough people. “They are smart people and they are passionate people. I think your father was a great fighter right?” Martin replied: “He was, yes. A very good defensive boxer. He was a good boxer, boxed for Ireland.” Trump then told him: “I’m not gonna mess around with you.” The avid golfer also love-bombed Rory McIlroy, declaring: “I love Rory. I think he’s great golfer. “He just won two weeks ago. He’s a great guy. I played golf with him three weeks ago and he’s really a fantastic player. He’s in good form too. When he played with me he played very well let me tell you.” Trump also said he wanted to visit Ireland. He said: “I will. I’ll get there sometime. I hope soon. If we meet, we’ll meet at Doonbeg. I hope to be able to get there.”