Trump says Irish unification would be ‘fantastic’

DUBLIN: Donald Trump said on Saturday he would “love to see” a united Ireland, wading into a politically sensitive subject as he embarked on a two-day Irish visit that blurs the lines between his presidency and personal business interests.

After meeting Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin, Trump said reunification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland — split for over a century — would be “a fantastic thing”.

“The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now,” he told reporters, adding though that “the UK will have something to say about it, obviously”. The island of Ireland has been split between the Irish republic in the south and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, since 1921.

Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland that killed about 3,000 people, a referendum can be held if the UK government determines a majority there is likely to favour joining the Republic of Ireland.

Born out of conflict in 1921, border between Republic of Ireland and UK-governed Northern Ireland remains a deeply significant fault line

The people of the Republic of Ire­land would also have to vote in favo­­ur for reunification to occur. The Un­­­­­i­­ted States has previously ado­­p­­ted a position of neutrality on the issue.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham insisted last month that a unity referendum was “off the table”, drawing a sharp response from the pro-unity party Sinn Fein.

Asked about Trump’s comments, a spokesperson for his Downing Street office referred reporters to comments Burnham made in parliament on Wednesday when he vowed to “stick to the Good Friday Agreement 100 percent”.

Divergences

However Gavin Robinson, leader of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said on X that “as unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic”.

The US president had touched down at Dublin airport shortly before 8:25am under a security operation dubbed one of the largest ever mounted in Ireland. At least 4,000 police and other personnel, including snipers, are mobilised for the visit, which will see Trump fly to his luxury resort in Doonbeg on Ireland’s west coast to watch the Irish Open golf tournament.

He inspected a military guard of honour after being received by left-wing President Catherine Connolly, an outspoken critic of the US leader. “I conveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted,” Connolly said in a post-meeting statement.

He then met Martin, when the Iran war and US tariffs on EU pharmaceuticals and immigration were on the agenda. Ireland and the United States have long been close allies, partly because of their common ancestral ties.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2026