Trump Says He Backs a United Ireland, Stoking a Divisive Debate

Taoiseach Micheal Martin and U.S.

President Donald Trump attend a bilateral meeting at Farmleigh House in Dublin, Ireland, on Sept.

12, 2026. —Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images Departing from decades of neutrality practiced by U.S.

Presidents on the delicate issue of Northern Ireland’s nationhood, Donald Trump on Saturday during his visit to Ireland said that he would “ love to see ” a united Ireland and that he believed it’s “going to happen eventually.” “You have Northern Ireland, and you have Ireland,” Trump doubled down to reporters on Sunday while visiting a golf tournament ​at one of his resorts in the Irish village of Doonbeg.

“It would seem to me that one of the ‘naturals’ of all time is to put them together.” It’s also not the first time Trump has mused about Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic: he joked about a “ merger ” of the two in March, though the Northern Ireland official he was addressing at the time, who opposes unification, emphasized that the comment was clearly in jest only.

The U.S.

President seemed aware that his recent remarks would garner backlash, particularly from the British.

“The U.K. would have something to say about it obviously, but I think it would be a great thing,” he said Saturday, while in conversation with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

“I mean, how can it be bad?” Trump’s statements come weeks after newly installed U.K.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there was not enough public support for a referendum on Northern Ireland’s future.

Other British politicians have balked at Trump’s statements, arguing that Northern Ireland is indisputably part of the U.K.

Martin also downplayed the U.S. leader’s remarks.

“It shouldn't be a surprise,” Martin told reporters on Sunday , adding that Trump “takes a different sort of perspective on things.” The Irish leader said that some responses to Trump, however, were an overreaction.

“They asked me about Scotland—that one I won't talk about yet,” Trump said Sunday, referencing another country divided on leaving the U.K.