Daniel Wolfram
President Trump stepped into uncharted waters after his unusual comment about Ireland and Northern Ireland.
President Donald Trump landed on Saturday morning to begin his two-day journey in Ireland.
Trump greeted Irish leaders alongside his family. Irish Finance Minister Simon Harris and Foreign Minister Helen McEntee joined diplomats to welcome the American delegation.
The scheduled talks with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin were meant to focus on routine bilateral affairs. But one question quickly raised eyebrows and made headlines.
Calling for a unified Ireland
When asked about reunification of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Trump was all for it.
At first, he acknowledged the geopolitical sensitivity surrounding the topic. “Well, I don’t want to cause any trouble,” Trump started out by saying according to CNN.
“But I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” Trump added, calling the potential unification “a great feather in everybody’s cap.”
Trump argued that events would naturally merge the two countries into one. “It’s going to happen eventually. You know what? It’s going to happen eventually. I think it will happen now. You’ve got the right man over here to get it moving,” Trump said, pointing at Martin.
Looking to London
The comments can be seen as an indirect provocation given the current fractured relationship between the US and the UK.
Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom, making it solely a decision for the British government.
Trump acknowledged that. “But yeah, I think it would be a fantastic thing. Now the UK will have something to say about obviously, but I think it would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?” he noted.
Trump appears to walk back comments shortly after
Not an hour after the meeting concluded with Taoiseach Martin, Trump held a press conference where he partially walked back his comments.
“Every question is a kill. […] they ask me a question. “What do you think about unification of Northern Ireland and Ireland?” I said, oh, that’s a nice question. I gave a nice answer, I think. We’ll read about it tomorrow, you know. That’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, no matter how well you say it, there’s no good answer,” Trump said to great laughter from the crowd.
Click to display external content from t.co,
- You can always enable and disable third-party content.
You agree to display external third-party content. Personal data may be sent to the provider of the content and other third-party services.
The real reason for Trump’s visit to Ireland is that he is the guest of honor at the Irish Open golf tournament, which is being played at his golf course outside of Dublin. A widespread protest against the president’s visit is expected.
