{"id":893207,"date":"2026-09-12T16:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/893207\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T16:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:50:13","slug":"trump-says-a-unified-ireland-would-be-fantastic-during-irish-visit-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/893207\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says a unified Ireland would be \u2018fantastic\u2019 during Irish visit | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham maintains that a poll is \u2018off the table\u2019 as there isn\u2019t enough popular support for Northern Ireland to leave the UK.<\/p>\n

United States President Donald Trump has said that a unified Ireland would be \u201cfantastic\u201d, in remarks made during a visit to Dublin that were not welcomed by government ministers in London.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments on Saturday came weeks after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom was \u201coff the table\u201d.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I\u2019d love to see it unified,\u201d Trump told reporters, while sitting next to Ireland\u2019s Prime Minister, Micheal Martin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to happen eventually \u2026 I think it would be a fantastic thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the UK will have something to say about it \u2026 but I think it would be a great thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Martin declined to respond to reporters\u2019 questions to comment on the US president\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

Following Trump\u2019s comments, a spokesperson for Burnham said his position on Irish unification remained unchanged.<\/p>\n

Responding to questions from members of parliament on Wednesday about a potential poll in Northern Ireland, Burnham said: \u201cI am not aware that there is majority public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"USDonald Trump is welcomed by Ireland\u2019s President Catherine Connolly at her official residence in Dublin, September 12, 2026 [Kin Cheung\/AP]<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast Agreement), a referendum on leaving the UK can be held only at the discretion of the British government.<\/p>\n

The accord ended three decades of violence known as The Troubles. The sectarian conflict involved mostly Catholic nationalist paramilitaries seeking a united Ireland, mostly Protestant unionist paramilitaries wanting to remain part of the UK, and British troops.<\/p>\n

Gavin Robinson, leader of the DUP, Northern Ireland\u2019s main unionist party, said that Northern Ireland\u2019s future was a matter for its people to decide, not Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump knows better than most that elections matter. Northern Ireland\u2019s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

While polls show a comfortable majority in Northern Ireland favour remaining in the UK, the gap has narrowed slightly since Britain\u2019s departure from the European Union pushed unity higher up the political agenda.<\/p>\n

Trump also met Irish President Catherine Connolly, who was elected head of state last year<\/a>. When Trump last visited Ireland as president in 2019, Connolly, an outspoken politician with left-wing foreign policy views, protested at Shannon Airport in western Ireland.<\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s current visit, some supporters had urged her to speak out against US military actions around the world and defend Ireland\u2019s neutrality.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople take part in a protest against the visit of US President Donald Trump in the Irish capital Dublin on September 12, 2026 [Adrian Dennis\/AFP]Anti-Trump protests<\/p>\n

Anti-war and anti-Trump protests<\/a> were held in Dublin and some were planned for later in western Ireland, near Trump\u2019s golf course in Doonbeg.<\/p>\n

Reporting from the capital, Al Jazeera\u2019s Milena Veselinovic said Dubliners had a \u201claundry list\u201d of reasons for protesting against Trump\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey feel that the Irish government should not be, in their words, rolling out the red carpet for someone like Trump, who they say is a cause of instability in the world and has been enabling Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza \u2026 and destabilised the whole of the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish people are also protesting against the high cost of hosting Trump, including security, which they say could pay for other things, such as healthcare and social issues, added Veselinovic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Prime Minister Andy Burnham maintains that a poll is \u2018off the table\u2019 as there isn\u2019t enough popular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1376,3456,43,23285,44,714,6679,41,39,42,40,127,772],"class_list":["post-893207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-headlines","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-protests","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}