There is “no plot for an Irish Trump”, the podcaster and right-wing campaigner Eddie Hobbs has said.
His comments contrast with assertions by United States right-wing podcaster and early Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who recently said he was “spending a tonne of time behind the scenes on the Irish situation to help form an Irish national party”.
“They’re going to have an Irish Maga and we’re going to have an Irish Trump. That’s all going to come together, no doubt,” Mr Bannon said recently.
But Mr Hobbs told The Irish Times: “His comments have nothing to do with me. I have had no conversations with him or anyone in the US about an Irish Trump.”
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He described the idea of a Trump-like figure emerging in Ireland as “absolute and utter nonsense”.
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“There is no plan for an Irish Trump . . . There is no Trump sleeper ready to go,” he said.
“I know nothing about some type of Trump sleeper in the Irish political system. I’ve had no conversations about it and I know nobody who has.”
He said he has been on Mr Bannon’s show three times, but has had no off-air discussions with him or anyone else about a new political force in Ireland or an Irish Trump.
In his opinion, he said, there was no chance of that happening.
“I’m not trying to create a new political movement,” Mr Hobbs said.
He said he established his Counterpoint podcast and associated YouTube channel because he wanted to “discuss topics not covered in the media”.
He was sceptical about the chances of a new political force on the right, citing the difficulties in establishing a new party in Ireland because of institutional barriers, such as State funding for existing parties.
Mr Hobbs was previously president of Renua, a centre-right party founded in 2015 that failed to register any success in subsequent elections.
“It would require an enormous effort to set up a new centre/centre-right party,” he said. He also said there was “no appetite” for a far-right or extremist party.
Mr Hobbs said there were “always a few extremists there, but I wouldn’t have them”.
He said if any new force did arise then it should look for inspiration to the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
“She was said to be far-right, it was the end of the EU and all that. But she has been very, very successful,” Mr Hobbs said.
He organised and hosted a large two-day conference recently in Co Meath with the theme of finding solutions to Ireland’s problems.
It featured several right-wing speakers and heard a number of far-right arguments, several of which gained vocal approval from the audience.
Praise for the Mr Trump was enthusiastically received by the audience, which included the US ambassador to Ireland, Edward Walsh.
But Mr Hobbs said that when he suggested Ireland should seek assistance from the US-based diaspora, he was not suggesting Ireland ought to seek to import the Maga movement here.
He said Mr Trump was a product of the US media and political system, saying he believed the US president’s central agenda was to “prevent America going insolvent”.
Mr Hobbs said he did not care whether the existing political parties shifted their positions to address the issues he cared about or whether a new political force did so.
He was focused on his role in the media, he said, and not interested in getting involved in politics.
