Trump backs united Ireland during Dublin visit

Donald Trump said he would “love” to see a united Ireland and suggested it “may as well happen now,” an unexpected intervention during a visit to Dublin that drew swift pushback from the UK government and Northern Ireland unionists.

“I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” the US president told reporters Saturday at a joint press conference with Taoiseach Micheál Martin. “I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.”

Trump called the unification of Northern Ireland with the republic of Ireland “fantastic,” adding: “The UK will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?” Martin declined to answer reporters’ questions about the remarks, Al Jazeera reported.

The comments came weeks after Andy Burnham said a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom was “off the table,” saying there was not majority public support for another vote. Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, a poll on leaving the UK can be held only at the discretion of the British government. The agreement ended three decades of violence known as the Troubles.

A Downing Street spokesperson said the prime minister still believed there was not the required support for unification to trigger a referendum under the Good Friday Agreement. A spokesperson for Burnham also said his position remained unchanged, according to Al Jazeera.

Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said Northern Ireland’s future would be decided by its people. “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,” Robinson said. “I am confident Northern Ireland will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers. As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish republic.”

Robinson also said: “President Trump knows better than most that elections matter. Northern Ireland’s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticized the remarks, saying: “President Trump is shooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state. This sort of loose talk about the future of democratic countries is deeply unhelpful and creates unnecessary tension.”

Colum Eastwood, an MP and former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, posted a clip of Trump’s comments and wrote: “Always liked him.”

Trump later acknowledged his remarks would be controversial. “No matter what you say or how you say it, there’s no good answer,” he said. “I gave a nice answer, I think. We’ll worry about it tomorrow.” He added that unification would be a “very cool thing.”

The Guardian reported that Trump’s comments departed from the approach of previous presidents, who sought to keep the White House neutral on Ireland’s constitutional future, though the off-the-cuff nature of the remarks suggested no change in US policy.

Trump’s two-day unofficial visit is centered on golf. He flew Saturday to his resort in Doonbeg, County Clare, which is hosting the Irish Open, after a courtesy call in Dublin to Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence and workplace of Irish President Catherine Connolly. Connolly later said she had “conveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted” and stressed the importance of the United Nations. Trump said they had a wide-ranging discussion and called Connolly “terrific.”

Anti-Trump and anti-war protests were held in Dublin, with others planned near Doonbeg. As Trump left Dublin, a crowd at the Garden of Remembrance waved banners and chanted: “Donald Trump, can you hear? We don’t want you here.”