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There are plenty of personal reasons why Joe Biden has made this trip to the island of Ireland the longest of his visits as president but it is also just very good politics.

It is hugely important to him personally, no doubt.

The US president talks often and at length about his Irish heritage.

He has said on this visit he is coming home. He feels that strongly. This is his ancestral and spiritual home.

“The best drop of blood in you is Irish,” he says he was told as a young man by his grandfather.

But he also knows the pictures we are seeing from Dublin, and later from County Mayo, play very well back home for a president who has just given his biggest hint yet that he will run for re-election.

Latest:
Updates on Biden’s trip

More than one in ten Americans claim Irish roots.

Sometimes, living there, it feels as though it is more than that.

Even Americans with the most tenuous Irish connection seem to make the most of it, especially on St Patrick’s Day.

In a country as young as America, it helps augment people’s sense of history and identity.

The pictures of a president being feted as a prodigal son in Ireland always go down well in America.

U.S. President Joe Biden takes a selfie with students on the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, at Ulster University, Belfast, Northern Ireland April 12, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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The pictures we are seeing from Ireland will play very well back home for Joe Biden

A president warmly welcomed on the streets and in the shops of Irish towns.

The images would help any president but Joe Biden especially so.

That is because Biden’s Irishness defines him as both a man and a politician – and has done throughout his half a century in politics.

The common humanity – which he invoked in his speech in Ulster – is an Irish and Catholic value, the president would say.

Read more:
Joe Biden’s controversial comments on Ireland
How Irish is Joe Biden?

President Joe Biden signs the guest book as he meets with Irish President Michael Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain, Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Dublin. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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President Biden signed the guest book as he met with Irish President Michael Higgins (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Joe Biden participates in a tree planting ceremony, as he meets with Irish President Michael Higgins
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President Biden participated in a tree-planting ceremony in Dublin

At the heart of the president’s brand of politics has always been his decency, his supporters would no doubt argue.

His belief in dignity and duty appeals.

They are all values instilled in him, he says, by his Irish-American family.

And they are values that millions of Americans share and relate to.

Coming here and burnishing his credentials as a genuine son of Ireland strengthens that brand in the minds of voters in the US.

It reminds them why they liked Joe Biden in the first place and why – when it comes to it – they may want to return him to the White House, even in his 80s.

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Anti-Trump protests sweep America for the second time in weeks

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Anti-Trump protests sweep America for the second time in weeks

Anti-Trump protests took place across America on Saturday, with demonstrators decrying the administration’s immigration crackdown and mass firings at government agencies. 

Events ranged from small local marches to a rally in front of the White House and a demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration of the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago.

Thomas Bassford, 80, was at the battle reenactment with his two grandsons, as well as his partner and daughter.

He said: “This is a very perilous time in America for liberty. I wanted the boys to learn about the origins of this country and that sometimes we have to fight for freedom.”

At events across the country, people carried banners with slogans including “Trump fascist regime must go now!”, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state,” and “Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight,” referencing the university’s recent refusal to hand over much of its control to the government.

Some signs name-checked Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian citizen living in Maryland, who the Justice Department admits was mistakenly deported to his home country.

Read more: Donald Trump’s deportations explained

Pic: AP
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Pic: AP

People waved US flags, some of them held upside down to signal distress. In San Francisco, hundreds of people spelt out “Impeach & Remove” on a beach, also with an inverted US flag.

People walked through downtown Anchorage in Alaska with handmade signs listing reasons why they were demonstrating, including one that read: “No sign is BIG enough to list ALL of the reasons I’m here!”

Pic: AP
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Pic: AP


Protests also took place outside Tesla car dealerships against the role Elon Musk ahas played in downsizing the federal government as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The protests come just two weeks after similar nationwide demonstrations.

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Organisers are opposing what they call Mr Trump’s civil rights violations and constitutional violations, including efforts to deport scores of immigrants and to scale back the federal government by firing thousands of government workers and effectively shuttering entire agencies.

The Trump administration, among other things, has moved to shutter Social Security Administration field offices, cut funding for government health programs and scale back protections for transgender people.

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Day 91: Q&A – deportations, dollar bills and MAGA hats

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Day 91: Q&A - deportations, dollar bills and MAGA hats

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On Day 91, our US correspondents James Matthews and David Blevins tackle listeners’ questions.

Is Trump’s El Salvador deportation plan good business? Could President Trump put his face on a dollar bill? And are MAGA hats made in China?

If you’ve got a question you’d like the TRUMP100 team to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

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JD Vance has ‘quick and private’ meeting with the Pope during visit to Rome

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JD Vance has 'quick and private' meeting with the Pope during visit to Rome

US vice president JD Vance has met with Pope Francis.

The “quick and private” meeting took place at the Pope’s residence, Casa Santa Marta, in Vatican City, sources told Sky News.

The meeting came amid tensions between the Vatican and the Trump administration over the US president’s crackdown on migrants and cuts to international aid.

No further details have been released on the meeting between the vice president and the Pope, who has been recovering following weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.

Mr Vance, who is in Rome with his family, also met with the Vatican’s number two, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The Vatican said there had been “an exchange of opinions” over international conflicts, migrants and prisoners.

According to a statement, the two sides had “cordial talks” and the Vatican expressed satisfaction with the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion and conscience.

“There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners,” the statement said.

Francis has previously called the Trump administration’s deportation plans a “disgrace”.

Read more from Sky News:
US VP meets Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Trump: Putin not playing me – but I might give up on peace talks

Mr Vance, who became Catholic in 2019, has cited medieval-era Catholic teaching to justify the immigration crackdown.

The pope rebutted the theological concept Mr Vance used to defend the crackdown in an unusual open letter to the US
Catholic bishops about the Trump administration in February, and called Mr Trump’s plan a “major crisis” for the US.

“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and
will end badly,” the Pope said in the letter.

Mr Vance has acknowledged Francis’s criticism but said he would continue to defend his views. During an appearance in late February at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, he did not address the issue specifically but called himself a “baby Catholic” and acknowledged there were “things about the faith that I don’t know”.

While he had criticised Francis on social media in the past, recently he has posted prayers for the pontiff’s recovery.

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