If Donald Trump is widely perceived at home as a sleepy, failing president trapped in crises of his own making and heading toward a midterm wipeout, his ability to command media attention and bewilder onlookers appeared undiminished during a two-day trip to Ireland this past weekend.
This wasn’t even an official state visit, just another of the business-meets-pleasure excursions that have become routine during the Trump administrations, and that no previous president would have ever contemplated. He was mostly there to attend the final two rounds of the Irish Open golf tournament, being contested at a resort he owns in County Clare. (Irish golfer Shane Lowry won the tournament, which under other circumstances would have been the week’s biggest story in that sporting-mad nation.)
