Did the 'foreign press' report that the Irish president insisted on being seated away from Donald Trump because he was emanating a disgusting 'fecal' like odor? No, that's not true: There are no credible reports that Catherine Connolly refused to sit near Trump during his visit to Ireland over a 'fecal' odor. His visit was covered by U.S. news outlets and international outlets and none of them reported a foul smell was behind a seating arrangement separating the Irish and American presidents.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by @lakota_man account on Threads on Sept. 13, 2026. It read:
The foreign press is now reporting that Catherine Connolly, the President of Ireland, insisted on being seated away from Trump because he was emanating a disgusting "fecal" like nauseating odor.
This is what the post looked like on Threads at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @lakota_man on Threads.)
Trump met with Connolly while in Ireland in Sept. 2026, as NPR reported (archived here). The claim that she insisted on being seated away from Trump due to a disgusting fecal odor is false.
Had this been reported by the "foreign press," or outlets from outside the United States, it would have been major news. Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports.
Lead Stories also searched RTÉ, the largest news outlet in Ireland (archived here) for keywords and did not find any matching reports of Connolly insisting she not be seated near Trump due to a "fecal" odor.