Even before Donald Trump left for his latest excursion to Ireland, the trip was controversial. After all, the American president, roughly 50 days before the midterm elections, decided to take a taxpayer-financed trip to the Emerald Isle, not to advance the United States’ interests, but to host a tournament at a golf course he owns.
But once he arrived, things took a turn for the worse.
On Saturday, the Republican made a series of problematic comments he should’ve known to avoid. He slammed NATO. He condemned Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. He questioned the integrity of his own country’s electoral system and accused Democrats of being “communists.” Asked about his recent interaction with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his response included odd and false claims about the size of the audience at last week’s midterm convention.
In an especially amusing moment, Trump even said first lady Melania Trump was there, before conceding that she was not, in fact, there.
But all of this was soon overshadowed when the president wandered into an international incident of his own making. MS NOW reported:
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would “love” to see a unified Ireland, setting off strong reactions in the United Kingdom and beyond.
“Well, I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you I’d love to see it unified,” the president told reporters at a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin, where residents took to the streets to protest Trump’s visit.
“I think it would be a great thing,” he added. “I mean, how can it be bad?”
In case this isn’t obvious, the underlying issue is deeply complex, and it’s best approached with a nuanced understanding of history, culture, diplomacy and regional politics.
Trump, however, who has long struggled to understand the basics of the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, had no use for any nuances. On the contrary, as the trip continued, he apparently felt the need to lean into his new position, which defied decades of U.S. foreign policy.
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”