Trump accuses Ireland of luring companies away from US

He said: “When the pharmaceutical companies started to go to Ireland, I would have said that’s okay if you want to go to Ireland I think that’s great, but if you want to sell anything into the United States, I’m going to put a 200% tariff on you so you’re never going to be able to sell anything into the United States.

“You know what they would have done? They would have stayed here.

“I have great respect for Ireland and what they did. And they should have done just what they did, but the United States shouldn’t have let that happen.”

Dublin introduced a 12.5% corporation tax rate in 1997, which led to some large US companies recording large revenues in the country.

The US President also threatened further action against the EU, saying that he would “respond” to the EU’s retaliatory tariffs.

“We’ve been abused for a long time and we will be abused no longer,” he said.

“The European Union treats us very badly, and they have for years,” he added. “They sue our companies and win massive amounts of money. They sued Apple … and they use that for other reasons, I guess, to run the European Union.”

He said that the EU’s policies “create ill will, and as you know, the reciprocal tariffs”.

Trump said his reciprocal tariffs, which he has pledged to introduce next month, will help rebuild US manufacturing.

He said tariffs will restore fairness to US trade and rebalance his country’s “massive [trade] deficit” with the rest of the world.