Taoiseach Martin calls fallout from some of Trump’s comments an overreaction
Doonbeg, Ireland — President Trump publicly backed Irish reunification during a Saturday meeting with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Dublin, drawing controversy into a weekend visit to Ireland that had been framed as low-stakes diplomacy and a few days of golf. The trip marked Trump’s first back to Ireland since 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The visit centered on Trump’s Doonbeg golf course, which hosted the Irish Open, but the most noticed remarks came at Farmleigh House, the Irish state guest house in Dublin, where Trump told Martin he would like to see the island unified.
“I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides, great people. They’re Irish people. How can they be bad, right?” Trump said at the meeting. “I’d like to see a unified country. I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually.”
Trump also raised reunification privately with Martin, according to a U.S. official, and later conceded the topic’s sensitivity in a speech to American diplomats and business leaders at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, telling the audience that “that’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, no matter how well you say it, there’s no good answer.”
Martin told reporters afterward that the fallout from some of Trump’s comments was an “overreaction,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ireland has been divided since 1921, when the country split into Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland to the south. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement ended decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles and provides a mechanism for a referendum if a majority of the U.K. government favors joining the Republic, contingent on a vote by the people of the Republic. U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said last week that “there will not be” such a referendum.
The reunification remarks came during a trip that mixed diplomatic ceremony with the spectacle of a presidential visit to a golf tournament. Trump arrived Saturday by flying over the Irish Open course on Air Force One, and play was paused when Marine One touched down on the grounds, kicking up grass and sending hundreds of spectators climbing dunes to catch a glimpse of the president. Trump watched the golf from a private patio overlooking the 18th green and dined with professional golfers Saturday night, the U.S. official said.
In the year since Doonbeg was announced as the location for this year’s Irish Open, Trump International Golf Links — designed by golfer Greg Norman — has undergone a redesign. One new feature is a helipad on the grounds for Marine One.
Irish professional golfer Rory McIlroy, a favorite of the president’s, said he didn’t mind Trump’s appearance despite the logistical challenges it brought. Ireland poured resources into securing the course for the president’s visit.
On Sunday, Trump made an impromptu appearance at the first tee to watch Irish native Shane Lowry begin his final round, then held a brief press conference. Trump defended his administration’s support for light regulation of artificial intelligence and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should stop hitting diesel-fuel infrastructure in Russia. When an Irish reporter asked what he made of the protests against him in Dublin, Trump instead told her she reminded him of the late Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor.
“I’ve actually gotten that before,” the reporter responded.
After Lowry sank a birdie putt to win the Irish Open, Trump was brought out on the 18th green to present him with a Waterford crystal trophy and used the moment to make a surprise policy announcement.
“I want to mention one thing: the taoiseach and I talked about it, and Shane talked about it, and everybody’s been bugging me about this one thing,” Trump said. “Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey?” Trump then promised to lift the tariffs.
The trip came one day after the Republican Party hosted a midterm convention in Dallas to mobilize supporters ahead of November’s elections, which will test Trump’s strategy of making himself the focus and whether the GOP’s fundraising advantage can offset his record-low approval ratings.
Trump also met separately with Irish President Catherine Connolly, who has sharply criticized Trump over Gaza. In a carefully worded statement, Connolly said she told Trump that “the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted.”
A separate controversy shadowed the trip at the Doonbeg resort itself. Plans by the Trump Organization to build a 12,000-square-foot ballroom — described by Eric Trump as a signature feature of the family’s resorts — have been delayed and appealed because of concerns about protecting a rare, microscopic narrow-mouthed whorl snail that lives along the coast.
“Building a ballroom for a beautiful hotel should not be controversial,” Eric Trump told RTÉ’s Drivetime program. “I think the one criticism I have of this country, and really of Europe in general, is it’s very hard to get anything done and it turns off a lot of investment.”
Ireland, which has become a European hub for U.S. companies including Google, Meta and Amazon thanks to its low corporate taxes and access to the European Union, used the visit to showcase its relationship with Washington. Trump told reporters he plans to return next year to watch the Ryder Cup.