It looks like Trump forgot that the Irish prime minister is not in charge of the UK

Every year the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar visits the White House in the run up to St Patrick’s Day, in what has become a traditional trans-Atlantic catch-up.

But this still didn’t stop president Trump from seemingly forgetting that Ireland is not part of the UK.

Varadkar can be heard praising the Trump administration for leaving Ireland and the UK out of his travel ban, which includes 26 European countries. The UK and Ireland's exclusion has been met with anger and confusion.

Speaking at the event, Varadkar said:

One of the things we have in Ireland is the CBP, American Border Security in Ireland. I went through it myself yesterday and they were asking the right questions, whether people had been to China and things like that so that puts it in a slightly different--

But Trump being Trump, he quickly interrupted the Irish leader, saying:

One of the reasons the UK, basically, has been.... it's got the border, it's got very strong borders, and they're doing a very good job. They don't have very much infection at this point and hopefully they'll keep it that way.

But there's just one problem with this: Varadkar is not the leader of the UK (obviously).

He is the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence in the Government of Ireland, and has been since June 2017.

It’s Boris Johnson Trump should be praising, if it is praise he believes is in order, for the UK’s response to coronavirus.

This isn't the first time Trump has become confused about the geography of the British Isles and Ireland.

At the 2019 August G7 summit, held in France, he claimed to have asked Johnson why the UK is not called "England":

Where’s England? What’s happening with England? They don’t use it too much anymore. We talked about it – it was very interesting.

There was also the time in 2018 when, while complaining about the protests surrounding his visit to London, he said: "I believe that the people in the UK – Scotland, Ireland, they like me a lot."

This wasn't the only odd thing about the meeting.

Given fears over the spread of coronavirus, the men greeted each other by saying "namaste" instead of shaking hands.