DUBLIN, Sept 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would "love" to see British-run Northern Ireland unify with Ireland, remarks made during a visit to Dublin that drew a sharp response from pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland.
Trump's comments come weeks after new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom was "off the table", a position Downing Street on Saturday said remained unchanged.
"Well, I don't want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I'd love to see it unified," Trump told reporters sitting next to Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin after the pair met in Dublin. "It's going to happen eventually ... I think it would be a fantastic thing."
'A VERY COOL THING'
"Now the UK will have something to say about it ... but I think it would be a great thing," he added.
Trump later said that there "was no good answer" to the question on Irish unity but repeated that he thought it would be "a very cool thing".
Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the UK can be held only at the discretion of the British government. The accord ended three decades of violence between Irish nationalists seeking a united Ireland and unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK.
While polls show a comfortable majority in Northern Ireland favour remaining in the UK, the gap has narrowed slightly since Britain's departure from the European Union pushed unity higher up the political agenda.
The leader of Northern Ireland's largest unionist party, the Democratic Unionist Party, rejected Trump's prediction, saying unification would lead to "the destruction of our country."
"Northern Ireland's constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington," Gavin Robinson, who has publicly supported Trump in the past, wrote on X.
Previous U.S. presidents, including those with strong Irish heritage like Joe Biden, have been careful to remain neutral on Irish unification. The U.S. government played a key role in brokering the 1998 peace deal.
'YOU FLEECED US'
Trump is making the 48-hour trip as his Republican Party campaigns to retain its majorities in both chambers of theU.S. Congress.He is due to attend a golf tournament at one of his resorts later on Saturday.
Trump also met Irish PresidentCatherine Connolly, who was elected head of state last year. When Trump last visited Ireland as president in 2019, Connolly, an outspoken politician withfar-left foreign policy views, protested outside Shannon Airport in western Ireland.
Anti-war and anti-Trump protests are planned in Dublin on Saturday and in western Ireland near the Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg.
Martin focused his remarks on the countries' close economic ties. U.S.-owned companies, mainly in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors, employ about 10% of workers in Ireland after successive governments prioritized their jobs and tax dollars over decades.
"You took all our medical companies, we've got to get a couple of them back," Trump said.
"You fleeced us but that's okay... There's a lot of room to go around and our relationship with you is fantastic."
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries in Dublin, Will James and Sam Tabahriti in London; Editing by Rod Nickel, Peter Graff and Mark Potter)
