Vice president Mike Pence has defended his two-night stay at Donald Trump's golf resort while on an official visit to Ireland amid questions over his use of public money to benefit the president.

The vice president spent Monday and Tuesday night at the Trump resort in Doonbeg, a small town on Ireland's west coast on the other side of the country from his state business in the capital.

Mr Pence defended the decision - which also required him to fly daily to Dublin and back on Air Force Two - by saying he wanted to have dinner at Morrissey’s, a pub owned by a distant cousin.

“I understand political attacks by Democrats, but if you have a chance to get to Doonbeg, you’ll find it’s a fairly small place," Mr Pence told reporters at the ambassador's residence on Tuesday.

Mr Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, said on Air Force Two that the president had just "made a suggestion" he stay at the Trump resort in Doonbeg and that there had been no formal directive.

“When we went through the trip, it’s like, ‘Well, he’s going to Doonbeg because that’s where the Pence family is from,’ ” Mr Short said. “It’s like, ‘Well, you should stay at my place.’”