Donald Trump Says He Would Love Irish Reunification During Dublin Visit With Micheal Martin

Trump urges Irish unity

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would “love” to see the reunification of Ireland, speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin during a two-day visit that included a golf tournament.

Trump told reporters, “I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” and added that “It’s going to happen eventually ... I think it would be a fantastic thing,” after the pair met at Farmleigh House in Dublin on September 12, 2026.

The remarks came weeks after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the UK was “off the table,” a position Downing Street said remained unchanged.

Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, a referendum can be held only at the discretion of the British government, and the accord ended three decades of violence between Irish nationalists seeking a united Ireland and unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK.

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Unionists reject foreign talk

Northern Ireland unionist leaders and the UK government pushed back quickly after Trump’s comments, with Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson saying Northern Ireland’s constitutional future would be decided by its people, not by “commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.” Robinson said, “Northern Ireland's constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington,” while the BBC reported Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows also framed the issue as one for “the people of Northern Ireland.”

A spokesperson for Burnham said his position on Irish unification remained unchanged, and Al Jazeera reported that Burnham said: “I am not aware that there is majority public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one”. In Dublin, protesters demonstrated against Trump’s visit, and Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said Dubliners had a “laundry list” of reasons for protesting, including that they said the Irish government should not be “rolling out the red carpet” for Trump.

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Good Friday framework stays

The dispute over Trump’s remarks is tied to the Good Friday Agreement’s consent framework, which leaves Northern Ireland’s status to a referendum only if the British government decides it is appropriate under the agreement.

Al Jazeera said that under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, a referendum on leaving the UK can be held only at the discretion of the British government, and it described the accord as ending three decades of violence known as The Troubles.

Global Times also quoted a Chinese analyst, Li Guanjie, saying UK-US relations have grown increasingly delicate and that Washington’s rhetoric may function as a way to pressure London, while Reuters was cited as reporting Trump’s comments in Dublin.

In response to the controversy, Trump later acknowledged the controversy during an event at the U.S. Embassy in Ireland and told the crowd of embassy personnel and business leaders, “I gave a nice answer, I think. We'll worry about it tomorrow,” as he reiterated that “a unification of the island would be great.”

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