Tánaiste Simon Harris has said he does not agree with social-media posts made on his constituency director’s account calling Donald Trump a “moron” and criticising teachers as work-shy.
Harris said it was appropriate they had been deleted since, and added he had not been aware of them.
The X account of John Kelly, who works in a public-salaried role in the Tánaiste’s office where he manages Harris’s Wicklow constituency operation, was deleted after he was asked about a series of provocative social-media posts.
In now-deleted comments on X, Kelly wrote a series of sharp responses to posts from other users that criticised Government policies or commented on news stories.
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His comments criticised teachers as work-shy, described the public as “racist” and called US president Trump a “moron” and Britain’s Prince Harry a “snowflake”.
Asked about the posts during Fine Gael’s parliamentary party think-in before the resumption of the Dáil next week, the Tánaiste said he didn’t ask Kelly to delete the posts and added that they were made on a personal account.
“I think they were from quite a number of years ago,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s now the decision that the social-media posts of all people working in every politician’s constituency office are now going to be examined and critiqued.”
He added: “This was a personal account from a number of years ago, the posts are deleted and I think it’s appropriate that they are.”
Kelly used his account to make several jibes at Trump. In a February 2022 post, he said Trump was a “moron”. He was responding to a Newsweek article where Trump was quoted saying there would be no Nato without him.
In a November 29th, 2020, post, after it became clear that Joe Biden would defeat Trump in the US presidential election, Kelly posted under a Fox News article: “I like winners not losers! Trump, you loser!”
Trump was not the only foreign dignitary to be criticised.
Responding to a Daily Mail report that quoted Prince Harry describing his travel itinerary as “hectic to the point of exhaustion”, Kelly wrote: “Snowflake.”
In another post, Kelly labelled Richard Boyd Barrett, the People Before Profit-Solidarity TD, a “trust fund kid”.
Many of Kelly’s posts were made in defence of Harris in the face of criticism or attacks from Sinn Féin supporters.
