{"id":224160,"date":"2026-09-14T12:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/donald-trump-says-he-would-love-to-see-united-ireland-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:47:29","slug":"donald-trump-says-he-would-love-to-see-united-ireland-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/donald-trump-says-he-would-love-to-see-united-ireland-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump says he would \u2018love\u2019 to see united Ireland – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

US president says on visit to republic that unification will happen eventually so \u2018may as well happen now\u2019
Donald Trump has said he would \u201clove\u201d to see a united Ireland and that it \u201cmay as well happen now\u201d.
The US president appeared to endorse the push for constitutional change on the island at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland on Saturday. The unexpected intervention prompted a swift rebuttal from the UK government and Northern Ireland\u2019s unionist leaders.
\u201cI don\u2019t want \u2060to cause any problems, \u200bbut \u200cI will \u200ctell you, I\u2019d love \u200cto see it unified,\u201d Trump told reporters at joint press conference with the taoiseach, Miche\u00e1l Martin, in Dublin. \u201cI think it would be a great feather in everybody\u2019s cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it\u2019s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.\u201d
The unification of Northern Ireland<\/a> with the republic of Ireland would be \u201cfantastic\u201d, Trump said. \u201cThe 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?\u201d
The intervention jolted his hosts and came two weeks after Andy Burnham said a referendum on unification was \u201coff the table\u201d<\/a>, which angered Sinn F\u00e9in and other Irish nationalists.
Speaking later on Saturday, Trump acknowledged that his comments on unification, made in response to a reporter\u2019s question, would be controversial. \u201cNo matter what you say or how you say it, there\u2019s no good answer,\u201d he said. \u201cI gave a nice answer, I think. We\u2019ll worry about it tomorrow.\u201d Unification, he added, would be a \u201cvery cool thing\u201d.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the prime minister still believed there was not the required support for unification to trigger a referendum, as set out in the Good Friday agreement.
Gavin Robinson, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, said Northern Ireland\u2019s constitutional future would be decided by its people, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.
\u201cNorthern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people. 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.\u201d
Colum Eastwood, an MP and former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP), and frequent critic of Trump, posted a clip of the president\u2019s remarks on social media and wrote: \u201cAlways liked him.\u201d
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said: \u201cPresident 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.\u201d
Trump\u2019s comments strayed from predecessors who sought to keep the White House neutral on Ireland\u2019s constitutional future, but the off-the-cuff nature of the remarks suggested there was no change in US policy.
Trump\u2019s unofficial visit is centred on golf \u2013 he flew on Saturday afternoon to his resort in Doonbeg, County Clare, which is hosting the Irish Open \u2013 but started with a courtesy call in Dublin to \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in, the official residence and workplace of the Irish president, Catherine Connolly<\/a>.
Before her election to the ceremonial post last year, Connolly called Trump a bully and criticised his policies<\/a> in Gaza and Iran. Their brief encounter, behind closed doors, appeared to go smoothly despite a coded critique of White House policies.
Connolly said in a statement afterwards that she \u201cconveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted\u201d and stressed the importance of the United Nations \u2013 an organisation Trump has disparaged. Trump said they had a wide-ranging discussion, including about energy and water, and that Connolly was \u201cterrific\u201d.
Trump held a separate meeting with Martin at the Phoenix Park, where he told the press that Iran would seek peace after the US midterm elections and repeated his claim that his war had prevented Tehran obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Asked about protests against his visit \u2013 a large crowd was gathering in central Dublin, 5 miles away, as well as at Doonbeg \u2013 the president said he had not seen any protests.
Addressing guests as at the US ambassador\u2019s residence, Trump assailed US Democrats as extremists and criticised Europe\u2019s approach to immigration.
He lauded US-Irish relations but reiterated a complaint about the American pharma giants in Ireland. \u201cYou took all our medical companies, we\u2019ve got to get a couple of them back. You fleeced us but that\u2019s OK.\u201d
Thousands of protesters marched through central Dublin and held a rally outside parliament. Speakers accused Trump of facilitating genocide in Gaza and led chants of \u201cDonald Trump, can you hear? We don\u2019t want you here.\u201d
Others in the crowd accused the president of misogyny, sexual assault, racism and xenophobia. \u201cDonald Trump is utterly immoral and he\u2019s wrecking the world,\u201d said Anne McGuinness, 70, who held a banner that said \u201cunwelcome\u201d.
Emily Hamilton, whose daughter held a banner saying \u201cGet rid of the evil orange\u201d, said the Irish government should have shunned him. \u201cWe can\u2019t stop him going to Doonbeg but we should not be welcoming him.\u201d
Mick Brennan, 70, said he and his wife Helen do not normally attend protests but made an exception for the US president. \u201cWe can\u2019t stand that Trump fella, from his toes to his nose.\u201d
A smaller protest was held at Doonbeg. Trump is to stay overnight at his resort and present the Irish Open trophy to the winner on Sunday before returning to Washington.
<\/strong><\/p>\n

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US president says on visit to republic that unification will happen eventually so \u2018may as well happen now\u2019Donald Trump has said he would \u201clove\u201d to see a united Ireland and that it \u201cmay as well happen now\u201d.The US president appeared to endorse the push for constitutional change on the island at the start of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":224161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}