President Trump beckoned to an Irish journalist in the Oval Office on Tuesday to comment on her 'nice smile' during a phone call with Ireland's newly elected Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
RTÉ reporter Caitriona Perry was one of a group of reporters in the room when he made the 'bizarre' gesture.
Trump was on the phone with Varadkar, who is Ireland's first gay prime minister, to congratulate him on his recent election win when he remarked: 'Well, we have a lot of your Irish press watching us. They're just now leaving the room.
'And where are you from? Go ahead, come here. Where are you from? We have all of this beautiful Irish press. Where are you from?', beckoning to Ms. Perry.
President Trump beckoned Caitriona Perry over to the Truman desk as he spoke with Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Tuesday
The president remarked that Ms. Perry had a 'beautiful smile on her face'
He then told the Irish leader that she had a 'beautiful smile on her face' and added 'I bet she treats you well'.
As she stood awkwardly beside the desk, Ms. Perry continued smiling before gingerly making her way back to her seat.
Others in the room giggled at the president's remark.
Caitriona Perry is the Washington Correspondent and US Bureau Chief for Irish news outlet RTÉ
Finally, the president delivered a message from the Irish prime minister.
'He thanks you for the newspapers Caitriona,' he said, prompting more laughs from the room.
Perry shared a video of their encounter on Twitter afterwards, describing it as 'bizarre'.
Twitter users were quick to criticize the president's remarks.
'Ms.Perry, please accept the apology of at least 1 female American,' said one while others deemed the president 'gross'.
'We apologize that our president is a weird, inappropriate creep,' said another.
'I'm sorry our president treated you this way,' said another embarrassed US citizen.
Actor Kevin Chamberlin said: 'He called you over to look you over. Gross,' adding the hashtag 'Embarrassed for my country'.
The outrage was of a similar tone to complaints about a 2005 recording of the president in which he boasted about 'grabbing women by the p****' while he thought he was off-camera.
Critics on Tuesday also reminded their followers online of the many women who spoke out to accuse of him sexual misconduct before the election. Trump denies all of their claims.
Perry, who is married, described herself as a 'one woman newsroom' in a 2013 article. She is due to remain in the US as RTÉ's correspondent until 2018.
She appeared to take the encounter in her stride. In an interview with her own network afterwards, she said: 'One minute we were outside the window and the next minute I'm meeting the President of The United States.
'Usually we would shoot from outside the window of the White House and that's what we were expecting today but instead we were invited inside to witness the President's call to the Taoiseach.
'When we went in he was already on the phone but I managed to catch his eye and he called me over,' she said.
Trump had been put on hold for more than a minute and a half on Tuesday, waiting for Ireland's new prime minister to get on the phone and receive his congratulations.
Varadkar, 38, eventually picked up.
But the president was left fidgeting with papers, and intermittently smiling and grimacing at an Oval Office full of reporters who were brought in to witness the call.
Trump wasn't the first foreign leader to reach him: French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel all beat him to it in the two weeks since Varadkar took office.
But the U.S. president cranked up the small talk just the same, offering 'congratulations on your great victory.
'We have so many people from Ireland in this country. I know so many of them. I feel I know all of them. But I just wanted to congratulate you.
'That was a great victory that you had.'
Varadkar – Ireland's youngest-ever leader, its first openly gay government minister and the first of Indian heritage – has indicated that he's not a regular passenger on the Trump Train.
He said in February that he 'wouldn't be keen' on inviting Trump to Dublin for a visit if he ran the Emerald Isle.
'I wouldn't,' he previously told RTÉ Television. 'I'm not sure what purpose it would serve.'
A month later at the White House, his predecessor Enda Kenny did just that, extending an official invitation for a state visit.
'I will not, of course, rescind that invitation,' Varadkar said last week, calling the idea 'inappropriate' and saying it could spark a 'diplomatic incident.'
Trump has been a firm friend to the Irish since his inauguration. He was enthusiastically welcoming to Varadkar's predecessor Enda Kenny earlier this year, inviting him to Washington DC for a state visit which coincided with St. Patrick's Day.
He seemed sympathetic to Kenny's plea for him to pardon the tens of thousands of undocumented Irish workers who currently live in the US illegally.
The president's ties with Ireland also predate his political career. In 2002, Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland opened in Doonbeg.