Ireland Says Trump Visit Has Been Canceled

President Trump's first visit to Ireland as president has been called off—according to the Irish, but not the White House. The Irish government said Tuesday that the visit announced in August had been "postponed due to scheduling reasons," the BBC reports. Trump had planned to visit Dublin and his Doonbeg golf course on his way to Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on Nov. 11. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, however, said Tuesday that the visit might still happen, the Guardian reports. Trump "will travel to Paris in November as previously announced," she said. "We are still finalizing whether Ireland will be a stop on that trip."

The visit had been hastily arranged, with the US government contacting the Irish embassy just two days before Trump made the announcement, the Irish Times reports. Some Irish lawmakers welcomed the apparent cancellation of the visit, which had been expected to draw huge protests. "We are glad he is not coming," says Green Party leader Eamon Ryan. "Trump’s positions and demeanor on every issue of the day, from climate to women’s rights, from international relations to political decency, represent the opposite of Green and indeed Irish values." Trump, who last visited Doonbeg in 2014, called off another planned visit in 2016. (His coastal Irish resort sought permission that year to build a wall to protect it from the effects of climate change.)