Shortly after setting foot in Dublin, President Trump on Saturday said it would be “fantastic” if Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland unified, breaking with decades of U.S. neutrality on an issue rooted in a long history of violence.
“I don’t want to cause any problem. I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” Mr. Trump said in Dublin alongside Micheál Martin, Ireland’s taoiseach, or prime minister. “It’s going to happen eventually.”
He later seemed to acknowledge that he had stepped into a politically problematic topic.
The American president said he still believed it would “be a cool thing” if Northern Ireland broke away from the United Kingdom, but joked that half the room would clear out after hearing his remarks.
“No matter how well you say it, there’s no good answer,” Mr. Trump told a crowd of embassy employees and business leaders gathered at Deerfield Residence, where the U.S. ambassador lives.
The United States has long supported the U.S.-brokered 1998 Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement, which brokered a fragile peace that ended roughly three decades of violence between those seeking a united Ireland and unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom.
Part of that peace agreement was that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom until a majority of its people voted otherwise in a referendum. For the island to be reunified, a majority of voters in the Republic of Ireland would also have to cast ballots in favor of the initiative.
Reunification is highly divisive in Northern Ireland, a nation carved out of the island of Ireland by the British after the Republic of Ireland became independent, because some fear a return to violence. And while a majority of citizens of the Republic of Ireland support the initiative, successive Irish governments have trod cautiously around the delicate issue.
In keeping with his freewheeling approach to the global stage, Mr. Trump has mused about the unification of Ireland before. Earlier this year, he suggested there should be a “merger” between Northern Ireland and Ireland because of how well Mr. Martin got along with Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly. She later said the comment was made in jest and should not be taken seriously.
Mr. Trump’s comment on Saturday came just days after Andy Burnham, the recently installed British prime minister, said there was not enough public support for a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom and until there was “there will not be one.” Mr. Trump himself acknowledged on Saturday that the government in London would most likely “have something to say about” his comments on reunification.
Patrick Dwyer-Cummins, a spokesman for 10 Downing Street, said that Mr. Burnham’s position remained unchanged and he was committed to upholding the Good Friday Agreement.
But Mr. Trump’s comment did prompt some immediate criticism — including from right-wing allies like Nigel Farage, the head of the populist party Reform U.K.
“Northern Ireland is a proud and integral part of the United Kingdom,” Mr. Farage wrote on social media. “The people of Northern Ireland neither want a referendum, nor unification. I disagree with President Trump.”
Gavin Robinson, a member of British Parliament and the leader of the main party in Northern Ireland that supports remaining in the United Kingdom, said on social media that “President Trump knows better than most that elections matter.”
“Northern Ireland’s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington,” he said. “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people.”
Claire Hanna, also a lawmaker from Northern Ireland and the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, which supports joining the Republic of Ireland, drew applause from a crowd on Saturday when she said Mr. Trump was “in favor of a united Ireland.”
She said Mr. Robinson’s party, a right-wing party that has long aligned itself with the American president’s politics, was most likely “burning those Trump flags as we speak.”
The reference to reunification was not the only unconventional aspect of Mr. Trump’s remarks.
American presidents, when speaking overseas, typically refrain from lacing into their domestic rivals. But Mr. Trump used his speech in Dublin to repeatedly attack Democrats, including describing former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has cancer, as physically infirm. Mr. Biden traveled to Northern Ireland in 2023 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Before his speech to embassy staff, Mr. Trump met with Mr. Martin and discussed trade and potential aid to the Gaza Strip. Mr. Martin has faced some pressure domestically in Ireland to push Mr. Trump to do more to help Palestinians.
Mr. Trump also began his trip by meeting with Ireland’s head of state, Catherine Connolly, who protested his visit to Ireland in his first term and has in the past called Mr. Trump a “bully.” She has continued to criticize his foreign policy in the Middle East.
He was, however, welcomed ceremoniously by Ms. Connolly at the Irish presidential residence. She also gave Mr. Trump gifts, including some that appeared to carry a deeper message.
One was a 2026 edition of “Navigatio Sancti Brendani,” a piece of medieval literature about a sixth-century saint, Brendan the Navigator, and a group of monks sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland. Some researchers and writers have speculated that their voyage led them to Greenland.
Mr. Trump nearly upended the Western military alliance when this year he suggested a U.S. takeover of Greenland.
Ms. Connolly also presented Mr. Trump with a 2006 volume of poetry by Michael Longley of Belfast. One of his more famous poems, published during the Troubles, is “Ceasefire.”
Megan Specia contributed reporting from London.
