{"id":622575,"date":"2026-09-12T16:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622575\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T16:04:13","slug":"hes-not-as-orange-as-he-looks-shock-and-guffaw-on-trumps-pro-united-ireland-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622575\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He’s not as orange as he looks’: Shock and guffaw on Trump’s pro-United Ireland comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Journal<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

THERE HAS BEEN rapid reaction from across the political spectrum to Donald Trump\u2019s comments that he\u00a0would \u201clove to see\u201d a United Ireland.<\/p>\n

The US President made the comments during a\u00a0rapid-fire 20-minute press conference<\/a> alongside Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin in Farmleigh House before he reiterated his stance later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I look at it, it\u2019s going to happen eventually. It will happen.\u00a0It may as well happen now,\u201d Trump said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin did not speak on the matter during the press conference, despite Trump referring to Martin and saying\u00a0\u201cyou got the right man over here to get it moving\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement this afternoon, however, the Taoiseach has said that Trump\u2019s comments \u201cshould come as a surprise to no one\u201d as he has been \u201cconsistent in his view that he sees unity in Ireland as the optimal outcome\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin said he told Trump that \u201che leads a party that supports Irish unity\u201d but that he also pressed on Trump the \u201cimportance of creating stronger communities and shared experiences on the island\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"us-president-donald-trump-during-a-meeting-with-taoiseach-micheal-martin-at-farmleigh-house-dublin-during-his-trip-to-the-republic-of-ireland-picture-date-saturday-september-12-2026\"
\n Trump in Farmleigh House today. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n

Over in Downing Street, the British government has responded to Donald Trump\u2019s comments, stressing that its position has not changed.<\/p>\n

A Downing Street spokesperson said Prime Minister Andy Burnham\u2019s view remains that \u201cthere is no majority public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one\u201d.<\/p>\n

Under the\u00a0Good Friday Agreement, the British government has agreed to hold a referendum on unity<\/a> if it deems there is a majority for that position in Northern Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch was more strident in her view<\/a>, saying that Burnham needed to rule out a referendum in a clearer manner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She criticised Trump for \u201cshooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state. \u201d<\/p>\n

The Journal<\/a> \/ YouTube<\/p>\n

Unionists in Northern Ireland have unsurprisingly been critical of Trump\u2019s comments, with\u00a0DUP leader Gavin Robinson posted on X to say that unionists \u201care not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNorthern Ireland\u2019s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jim Allister of the hardline TUV said that Trump \u201cis not the first US president to meddle in the affairs which don\u2019t concern him\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cNorthern Ireland is not a pawn in Trump\u2019s fall-out with the UK. Our constitutional future does not depend on him or any other foreign dignitary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n X<\/p>\n

X\n<\/p>\n

Ulster Unionist Party Leader Jon Burrows MLA said the US president \u201clike anyone else in the world, is entitled to express his view on the constitutional future of another country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the only people whose decision counts are the people of Northern Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the nationalist side, Sinn F\u00e9in wasn\u2019t going all in on Trump\u2019s comments but didn\u2019t want to loom a gift horse in the mouth either, with Louise O\u2019Reilly TD describing the comments from Trump as \u201cinteresting\u201d, adding that there is bi-partisan support in the US for Irish unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes the man talk off the cuff? Yes, he does sometimes. But the remarks come six months after Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor of New York\u2026also spoke in very positive terms about Irish unity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is that conversation is happening, it\u2019s happening here on this island it\u2019s also happening in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n X<\/p>\n

X\n<\/p>\n

The SDLP was taking a light-hearted view of Trump\u2019s comments.\u00a0MP for Foyle and former leader\u00a0Colum Eastwood\u00a0shared a clip of Trump making the comments and said: \u201cAlways liked him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s current leader and MP for South Belfast and Mid Down Claire Hanna said:<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump in the last hour has announced that he is in favour of a United Ireland. Turns out he\u2019s not as orange as he looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI\u2019m not sure if anybody\u2019s checked on the DUP. I suspect they\u2019re burning those Trump flags as we speak. But folks, I think that underlines as clearly as anything that change is happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Journal \/ YouTube THERE HAS BEEN rapid reaction from across the political spectrum to Donald Trump\u2019s comments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[264322,969,61,60,43,123055],"class_list":["post-622575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-32-counties-and-50-states","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-united-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}