Trump’s Irish unification remarks draw opposition from Britain

London: The remarks of US President Donald Trump on the unification of Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland have sparked strong opposition from Britain.

During a two-day visit to Ireland, Trump said on Saturday he would “love to see” the unification of Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland, Xinhua news agency reported.

“President Trump is shooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state,” said Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch on X on Saturday.

She added that “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom.”

“I disagree with President Trump,” said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on X the same day, “Northern Ireland is a proud and integral part of the United Kingdom.”

Former Republican Congressman Mick Mulvaney was Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland in his first term in office.

He cautioned against anyone reading too much into the president’s remarks.

“This does not represent a shift in US foreign policy,” he said.

Angela Rayner, the UK’s communities secretary, played down the president’s remarks. “Donald Trump is Donald Trump, and the president will say and speak his mind as he sees it,” she told Sky News. The government was serious about the Good Friday agreement and would “continue on that path”, she said.

Trump ended his visit on Sunday at his Doonbeg golf resort in County Clare in exuberant fashion by presenting the Irish Open trophy to Shane Lowry and announcing that he would cut tariffs on Irish whiskey.

“Everyone’s been bugging me,” he told the crowd. “They say ‘will you do me a favour, it’s so unfair, could you possibly take the tariffs off Irish whiskey?’ And I said ‘on behalf of the United States of America I’m going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey’.”

IANS