This is the "bizarre" moment Donald Trump complimented an Irish journalist, by beckoning her over and telling her she has a "nice smile". The US President was making a diplomatic phone call to the newly-elected Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, to congratulate him on his position when he said: "Well, we have a lot of your Irish press watching us, they're just now leaving the room.
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"And where are you from?" he said, singling out Caitriona Perry, Washington correspondent for RTE News, and beckoning her over. "Go ahead, come here, come here," he said. "Where are you from? We have all of this beautiful Irish press. Where are you from?" "I'm from RTE News, the Taoiseach will know me. It's Caitriona Perry, RTE News," Caitriona replied. Continuing with his phone call, President Trump, 71, told the Prime Minister: "Caitriona Perry. She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well." "He thanks you for the newspapers, Caitriona," Trump added.
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Caitriona has since taken to Twitter to share a clip of the incident, which she described as "bizarre". She wrote: "Video of the bizarre moment when President @realDonaldTrump called me over during his call with Taoiseach @campaignforLeo Varadkar." The video has provoked strong reactions on social media, and has been favourited at least 14,000 times. One Twitter user wrote: "Ms. Perry, please accept the apology of at least 1 female American." A second wrote: "Remarks like that in workplace are completely inappropriate. There's a time & place: discussing one's attractiveness in workplace is wrong." "I am sorry our President treated you this way," a third commented.
But some were quick to defend the US President, with one tweeting: "So any man that says you're beautiful and you have a nice smile is a creep? I normally take that as a compliment. I see your minds in the gutter." Another asked Caitriona: "But u were giggling. He sounded kind to u. Can't women take compliments anymore?"