DUBLIN — President Donald Trump said Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, that he would “love” to see a united Ireland and that reunification “may as well happen now,” speaking beside Taoiseach Micheál Martin after their meeting at Farmleigh House on a two-day Ireland visit, RTÉ and Reuters reported.

“Well, I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” Trump said. “I have friends on both sides. Great people. They’re Irish people. How can they be bad, right?” He added: “The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now,” and gestured to Martin as “the right man over here to get it moving,” according to RTÉ’s transcript of the Farmleigh press availability.

Trump also said “the UK will have something to say about it, obviously,” while calling unification “a fantastic thing.” Later at the U.S. ambassador’s residence he joked that Irish unity is “one of those questions where no matter what you say … there is no good answer,” then called it “a very cool thing,” RTÉ reported.

The U.K. government said Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s position is unchanged: there is no majority public support for a border poll, and until that changes there will not be one, RTÉ reported. Under the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the U.K. secretary of state may call a poll and must do so if it appears likely a majority in Northern Ireland would vote for unification; voters in the Republic must also approve any constitutional change.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Northern Ireland’s future “will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.” Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows likewise stressed the principle of consent, saying Trump is “entitled to express his view” but only Northern Ireland’s voters decide, per RTÉ.

A U.S. president musing aloud that Irish reunification should happen “now” is diplomatic improvisation, not a treaty rewrite — and London’s immediate reply was that the poll math has not changed. Trump’s golf-and-diplomacy swing still put the Good Friday consent machinery back on Saturday’s wire.

Sources