[ad_1]
Complicating matters, the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said in a statement shortly after the administration was "finalizing" whether Ireland would be a stop on a previously announced trip to Europe .
The reports of the duel added to the confusion surrounding the presidential visit, which last month's announcement surprised Irish officials and could provoke angry demonstrations.
In an apparent communication breakdown, Irish government officials said they understood that the Trump calendar would not allow a visit in November.
In August, the White House announced that Mr. Trump would travel to Paris to attend the events of November 11, on the occasion of the centennial of the armistice that ended the First World War and stopped Ireland. In its announcement, the White House said the visit would serve to "renew the deep and historical ties between our two countries".
On Tuesday, Sanders confirmed that the Paris leg of the trip was still scheduled, but said that no final decision on a stop in Ireland had been taken.
The trip to Ireland will be Trump's first in the country as president, but his reception should be icy. The cancellation of the stoppage would be tantamount to "a bullet avoided for sure," an informed Irish diplomatic source told CNN.
Many Irish government officials "certainly did not look forward to Trump's visit and planned a discreet agenda essentially out of public view as there is a lot of dislike (in Ireland) of Trump," said the diplomatic source. .
"A number of government ministers, who are independent as a minority government, planned to join the protests," the source said.
Trump's visit also coincided with the inauguration of the next Irish president. Five people are running for the position, including incumbent President Michael Higgins. Elections are scheduled for 26 October. Ireland will also mark its own commemoration of the end of the First World War, when tens of thousands of Irish soldiers died.
Trump was to visit Dublin and his Dooberg golf course in County Clare during his current visit.
Irish officials described Washington's inadequate communication in anticipation of the announcement of the trip and the apparent postponement.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the public TV channel RTE that the announcement of the trip was "a bit unexpected" earlier this month. The Irish diplomatic source said the indications that the trip would be cleaned up were also a surprise.
"We were surprised when the news was made that it would not come, as we had announced when it arrived," the source said.
The president is due to attend the G20 meetings later in November in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, and stop in Colombia. Trump was originally scheduled to visit Colombia in April, but gave up his trip to stay in Washington and oversee military strikes in Syria.
