Trump in Ireland
Shane Lowry of County Offaly, Ireland just won the Irish Open in heroic fashion. President Trump was on hand for the trophy ceremony at his golf course and hotel in Doonbeg, County Clare. A bit of breaking news. Trump told a cheering crowd, “On behalf of the United State of America, I am going to take the tariffs off of Irish Whiskey.” So it goes.
Trump’s trip to Ireland in a series of quotes
At a press conference Saturday morning in Dublin he was asked about a United Ireland. He picked up where he left off on St. Patricks’s Day at the White House when he said he’d be all in on Ireland and Northern Ireland becoming one nation. See below from last March: Did Trump endorse a United Ireland?
This time, he started by saying he didn’t "want to cause any problems.
"But I will tell you, I'd love to see it (Ireland) unified. I have friends on both sides. Great people. They're Irish people. How can they be bad, right? I'd love to see it unified. I think it would be a great, a great feather in everybody's cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it's going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now. I think it would be a fantastic thing. Now, the UK will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing.”
"I mean, how can it be bad?"
UK has something to say
Shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat told the BBC that Mr Trump's remarks had been "unhelpful" and accused him of "playing games".
Mr. Tugendhat added: "I suppose I knew he was a Republican, I didn't know he was that kind of a republican." (As in Irish Republican Army.)
Which might be the wittiest comment to come out of Trump’s not-so-spontaneous stand on this issue. (A “Shadow foreign secretary is not some secretive bureaucrat. In the UK, for every cabinet member of the ruling party (Labor) there’s a shadow secretary from the opposition (Conservative).
Gerry Adams reacts
"Yesterday's remarks by President Trump on the issue of Irish Unity are welcome, even though we profoundly differ with him on many other matters, as we did with his predecessors. They reflect the broad north American sentiment towards Irish unity and particularly the Irish diaspora towards Irish reunification.” Sinn Fein, the Irish party leading the effort for a United Ireland, called Trump’s words “welcome.”
Leader of the opposition to a United Ireland
Gavin Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party - "As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic,.”
Trump protestor who supports a United Ireland but….
Sarah Ferrigan - Community worker - “I don’t think his opinion – in inverted commas – has any value.” (“inverted commas” is what we call “air quotes” here in America.)
Trump doubles down at Doonbeg
He predicted that what he said on Saturday about unifying Ireland would be in all the papers on Sunday. How right he was. He won the new’s cycle by wading into an emotional fight that has torn Ireland apart.
"I love my comments. I've always loved the people of Ireland. It just seems to me that you have Northern Ireland and you have Ireland. It seems to me that one of the naturals of all time is to put them together. That's only my opinion. Many people agree. I made the comment yesterday. I made what I considered to be a fairly routine comment. I have had so much support on that.”
A grateful publican in Doonbeg
Setting aside the row over a 32-county Ireland nation, Seoirse Comerford, who owns the Comerford Bar in Doonbeg, says he is a huge fan of what Trump has done for South Clare. "If you look at the red double decker buses going up and down the street full of people, we never thought we would have seen the like of that. I probably wouldn't have taken over the bar business other than the golf course being up there. We would have had 1,000 plus through the pub on Saturday night and the same Friday night, so there's a lot of people around the village, which is great to see. Most rural villages in west Clare are all dying a death, young people going away to college, they don't come back. Like there's over 300 people employed up there at the golf course , it's a big boost to the local economy. You've got big companies in Dublin, like Intel, the golf course is our Intel down here.”
From the ARCHVES OF THE PDX HI – MARCH 19, 2026 Did Trump endorse a United Ireland?
It sure sounded like it. “Welcoming Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, he joked he would get into trouble but said there needed to be a "merger" in Ireland, suggesting a United Ireland would be beneficial to all.” according to RTE. WTF!?!? The reunification of their nation is no joke to Irish nationalists. But NI’s Protestant co-leader said afterwards that Trump was obviously kidding. “Asked if Trump's comments represented his support for Irish reunification, Emily Little-Pengelly said: "If you are trying to take that from a bit of a joke by the president, that is really grasping at straws. It was "clearly a joke," she insisted wrote the BBC. Headlines: Daily Star - “Bad luck of the Irish: Martin looks on