A top Irish columnist just trashed Pence over Ireland trip: he “sh*t on the new carpet”

Vice President Mike Pence had the dubious honor of representing the Trump administration abroad recently. During the trip, he managed to divert taxpayer dollars to his boss’s pockets by staying at a Trump property in Ireland despite the fact that it was some 180 miles away from his meeting. In other words, it was exactly the kind of incompetent, corruption-riddled diplomatic mission we’ve come to expect from this regime.

The Irish themselves seem to share the low opinion of Pence that so many Americans now hold. One columnist at The Irish Times went so far as to say that the vice president “shat on the new carpet in Ireland’s spare room.” Miriam Lord, the writer in question, slammed Pence for praising British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his push for Brexit.

The idea of the UK withdrawing from the EU is immensely unpopular in much of Ireland as, among other things, it would exacerbate tensions between the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Ireland, a part of UK. The fact that Pence would praise the ill-conceived and sure to be disastrous Brexit shows that he either doesn’t understand Irish politics or simply doesn’t care.

“Let me be clear: the US supports the UK decision to leave the EU in Brexit. But we also recognize the unique challenges on your northern border. And I can assure you we will continue to encourage the United Kingdom and Ireland to ensure that any Brexit respects the Good Friday agreement,” Pence said to Leo Varadakr, the taoiseach of Ireland.

Lord took specific aim at the preprepared remarks: “As Pence read from the autocue and Irish eyes definitely stopped smiling, it was clear he was channeling His Master’s Voice. Trump is a fan of Brexit and of Boris.”

Once again, we see this administration embarrassing the United States on the world stage and pushing our allies further away. Whoever succeeds Trump as president is going to have a mountain of work to do repairing our international relationships but luckily there are numerous Democrats more than up to the task. But first we have to vote these goons out of office.

Natalie Dickinson

Natalie is a staff writer for the Washington Press. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2010 and has been freelance blogging and writing for progressive outlets ever since.