The US president has caught flak from the leader of a major unionist party who said Northern Ireland will remain part of the UK
The Republic of Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland will eventually be reunified, US President Donald Trump has predicted.
The Republic of Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922, while six northeastern counties remained part of the UK as Northern Ireland.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin on Saturday, Trump said that he would “love to see [Ireland] unified.”
“I think it would be a great feather… in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually. Might as well happen now,” the US president added, suggesting that Martin is the “right man… to get it moving.”
While Trump acknowledged that the “UK will have something to say about it, obviously,” he insisted that a reunified Ireland “would be a great thing.”
Trump also said he and the Irish prime minister are “friends” and described relations between Washington and Dublin as being better than ever before.
Speaking at the US ambassador’s residence later in the day, Trump acknowledged that his remarks could prove controversial, conceding that “it’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, there’s no good answer.”
Earlier this year, Trump similarly suggested that there should be a “merger” between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, citing what he described as a good rapport between Martin and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Emma Little-Pengelly.
Trump’s predecessors in the White House supported the status quo that was established by the US-brokered 1998 Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement. The accord largely ended roughly three decades of political violence in Northern Ireland between the Irish Republican Army and several other smaller groups, which sought reunification with Ireland, loyalist groups that wanted the region to remain part of the UK, and British security forces.
The agreement explicitly provides a path to Irish reunification should a majority in Northern Ireland express support for it. This would require the secretary of state for Northern Ireland to call for a referendum on the issue.
In a post on X on Saturday, Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, decried Trump’s latest remarks.
“President Trump knows better than most that elections matter… Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,” the politician wrote.
He expressed confidence that Northern Ireland “will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers.”
Speaking during his first visit to Northern Ireland last month, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham likewise stated that a referendum on Irish reunification was “off the table.”
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