US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said he would “love to see” a unified Ireland, something he believes is “going to happen eventually”. 

Trump made the comments while meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Farmleigh House this morning after the pair  held a bilateral meeting.

Speaking to reporters in Farmleigh House in response to a question about a united Ireland and if he’d like to see it., Trump said “I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see [Ireland] unified.”

“I’d love to see it unified. I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually,” he added.

“The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It will happen. It may as well happen now,” Trump said. 

Referring to the Taoiseach, Trump said “you got the right man over here to get it moving”.

The president said the UK “will have something to say about it, obviously”, before adding that he thinks unification would “be a great thing”.

“How could it be bad?” the president asked.

In August, UK prime minister Andy Burnham said a united Ireland referendum is “off the table”, prompting criticism from nationalists. 

Before leaving for the US ambassador Ed Walsh’s reception in Deerfield, reporters asked the Taoiseach to respond to the president’s united Ireland remarks, but he declined and indicated he was in a rush. 

US President Donald Trump is greeted by Taoiseach Micheal Martin and his wife Mary O'Shea, as he arrives at Farmleigh House, Dublin. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Giving a long-winded address at the ambassador’s residence, in front of a crowd of around 500 people, Trump joked that he might have got himself into a bit of bother answering the united Ireland question:

“They ask me a question, ‘what do you think about unification of Northern Ireland and Ireland?’ I said, Oh, that’s a nice question. I gave a nice answer. I think we’ll read about it tomorrow.”

He added: “That’s one of those questions where, no matter what you say, no matter how well you say it, there’s no good answer, right?

“But I actually said it would be, I think, a very cool thing. To be honest with you, I think it would be cool.”

The British government has responded to Donald Trump’s comments, stressing that its position has not changed.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s view remains that “there is no majority public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one”.

Reacting, Gregory Campbell, DUP MP for East Londonderry, told Sky News that he looks forward to meeting Trump soon so he can explain to the president “how it could be bad, and hopefully he can clear his diary for some time to allow us to explain that. I think this is just a Trumpism”. 

Trump was greeted warmly by Martin and his wife Mary O’Shea at Farmleigh House, following a brief meeting between the US president and President Catherine Connolly. 

In advance of Trump’s arrival, the Taoiseach said: “I look forward to welcoming President Trump to Ireland and to discussing the many issues of mutual interest and reaffirming the strong economic, cultural and people-to-people ties between Ireland and the United States.”

After Trump’s engagements in Dublin this morning, he will spend the rest of the weekend at the Irish Open, which is taking place at his property in Doonbeg. 

“[Trump's] visit comes during a remarkable sporting summer for Ireland, and the United States and this weekend’s Irish Open at Trump International Doonbeg will be a fitting conclusion to an outstanding season of sport, and I hope we will see an Irish winner lifting the trophy on Sunday,” the Taoiseach said. 

The US president is to deliver an address to invited guests at the US Ambassador’s Deerfield residence in the Phoenix Park shortly.