Trump cancels planned November visit to Ireland: RTE TV

Last updated on September 13th, 2018 at 10:53 am

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DUBLIN (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled a planned visit to Ireland during a November trip to Europe, Irish media reported on Tuesday.

The White House in August announced that Trump would travel to Ireland for the first time as president as part of a trip to attend the Nov. 11 commemoration in Paris of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War One.

The White House, the Irish Foreign Ministry and the office of Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar all declined immediate comment on reports of the cancellation from Irish state broadcaster RTE and the Irish Independent newspaper.

An correspondent for RTE said it understood that no formal communication had yet been made to the Irish government and that a statement from the U.S. State Department or the White House was expected in the coming hours.

A number of groups announced they would stage protests during the Trump visit, in which the president had been expected to visit the capital Dublin and his golf resort in the west coast village of Doonbeg.

Varadkar, who as a cabinet minister opposed extending an invitation to Trump before changing his mind when he became prime minister, described the trip as coming “a little bit out of the blue”, but said the office of the U.S. president must be respected.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Mark Heinrich)