Donald Trump’s support for a united Ireland has drawn criticism from British and Northern Irish politicians, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accusing the US president of making “loose” comments about the future of democratic countries.
Speaking alongside Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Farmleigh Estate in Dublin, Mr Trump said he would “love to see a unified Ireland” and predicted that reunification would eventually take place.
“I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened,” he said. “It’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.”
Mr Trump acknowledged that the UK would have a say, adding: “I think it would be a fantastic thing. Now the UK will have something to say about it, obviously, but I think it would be a great thing.”
Mrs Badenoch said the remarks were typical of a president “shooting from the hip as usual”. She added: “This sort of loose talk about the future of democratic countries is deeply unhelpful and creates unnecessary tension.”
Nigel Farage, despite his close political alliance with Mr Trump, also rejected the intervention. “Northern Ireland is a proud and integral part of the United Kingdom,” he said. “The people of Northern Ireland neither want a referendum, nor unification. I disagree with President Trump.”
The comments were condemned by unionist leaders in Northern Ireland, who stressed that the region’s constitutional future should be determined by its people.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson 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.”
He said Northern Ireland remained part of the UK because that was “the settled democratic will of its people”, adding that he was confident it would continue to choose the UK and the security it offered.
Jim Allister, leader of Traditional Unionist Voice, said Mr Trump was “not the first US president to meddle in the affairs which don’t concern him”.
“Northern Ireland is not a pawn in Trump’s fall-out with the UK,” he said. “Our constitutional future does not depend on him or any other foreign dignitary.”
By contrast, SDLP leader Claire Hanna welcomed the intervention, writing: “In the last hour Donald Trump has announced that he is in favour of a united Ireland. It turns out that he isn’t as orange as he looks.”
Former SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, MP for Foyle and a critic of the US president, shared a clip of the remarks on social media with the comment: “Always liked him.”
During his two-day visit to the Republic of Ireland, Mr Trump also said that any conflict between the UK and Argentina over the Falkland Islands would be a “disaster”, but claimed he would be able to “settle it”.
