Overview
- The president made the comments and the tariff announcement over a two-day personal trip that ended Sunday, during which he met Ireland’s president and taoiseach before attending the Irish Open at his Doonbeg resort.
- Trump said he would “love” to see a united Ireland and called reunification inevitable, comments he repeated on the golf course while refusing to set a timeline for a border poll.
- British leaders and Northern Ireland unionist parties pushed back swiftly, with the UK prime minister’s office reiterating there is no clear public majority for a referendum and that any poll must follow the Good Friday Agreement process.
- At the Irish Open prizegiving the president declared he would remove a 10% U.S. tariff that applies to whiskey made in the Republic of Ireland, a move cheered by crowds and welcomed by the Irish Whiskey Association.
- Irish authorities ran a large security operation with the Garda, Defence Forces and US Secret Service during thousands-strong protests in Dublin, Doonbeg and Shannon, while critics flagged ethics concerns over the president using a visit to his own golf property for public and economic gestures.