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US President Donald Trump has said that he would "love" to see Ireland unified and that "it may as well happen now" as it is "going to happen eventually".
Mr Trump's remarks come as the US President kicked off his visit to Ireland by meeting Irish President Catherine Connolly, a vocal critic of his administration, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Speaking while sitting alongside Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Mr Trump said: "Well, I don't want to cause any problems, but I will tell you I'd love to see it unified.
"I have friends on both sides, great people. They're Irish people. How can they be bad, right?
"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.
"You know what? The way I look at it, it's going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.
He added: "Now the UK will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?"
Lewis Goodall is joined by Mattew O'Toole Leader of opposition Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland and MLA for Belfast South to discuss.
00:40 | Donald Trump's comments
01:57 | SDLP leader Claire Hanna's reaction
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0:00
There are some political situations in Europe, on Earth, that require a delicacy of touch
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They require centuries of knowledge, of acrimony, bitterness, dispute, of history and politics and religion
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colliding, deep territorial questions that require a subtlety and suppleness and sureness of touch
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And then Donald Trump got involved in the question of Ireland. Donald Trump has said he would love to see a united Ireland, and that it may well happen now
0:35
This is what the president said as part of a two-day visit to the republic yesterday. I'd love to see it, you know. I think it would be a great feather in everybody's cap if that happens
0:47
It's going to happen eventually. Now, the UK will have something to say about it, obviously, but I think it would be a great thing
0:54
Bear in mind that the American presidents, all the way back to Bill Clinton, have been something of a custodian of the Northern Ireland peace process, a process which took decades to get to a position where, in effect, both the Republic and the UK abandoned all long-term territorial claims on Northern Ireland and submitted to the idea of the principle of consent
1:16
that what happened to Northern Ireland would happen and should only happen
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as a result of what people in Northern Ireland wanted. Obviously trying to overcome those decades, if not centuries, of, as I say, bitterness and dispute
1:29
Donald Trump has decided to weigh it in and say that he can't see a reason
1:33
why United Ireland might not just happen now. I don't want to cause any problems, the President said, but I'll tell you
1:40
I'd love to see it unified. I think it would be a great feather in everyone's cap if it happened
1:45
You know what, the way I look at it, it's going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now
1:51
Here was how the leader of the SDLP, which is, of course, a more moderate nationalist party in Northern Ireland, Claire Hanna, reacted to the news
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And this is real. Donald Trump, in the last hour, has announced that he is in favour of a united Ireland
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Turns out he's not as orange as he looks. I'm not sure
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I'm not sure if anybody's checked on the DUP. I suspect they burning those Trump flags as we speak Rule one of British politics is that political jokes are never funny Claire Hanna just broke that rule Let talk now to the leader in opposition of the SDLP in Northern Ireland
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in Stormont, MLA for Belfast South, Matthew O'Toole. Matthew is a good nationalist
2:37
Do you welcome the president's conversion to the cause? Well, I'd never, ever thought I would agree with Donald Trump
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on basically anything with this, but I suppose you might say even a stop clock or an adult mind
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makes sense occasionally. Look, I really don't want to be on the same side as Donald Trump
2:55
I don't want to, in a sense, endorse or credentialise Donald Trump purely because he said one thing that I happen to agree with
3:01
I would say a couple of things. One, the fact that Trump has picked up on the idea
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and sense that there is a conversation about Irish unity, which is not just a traditional territorial kind of thing
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It's to do with a whole range of things. The fact that he's picked up on this, I suppose, conversation
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given that he obviously is somebody who tends to just respond to stimuli that is around him
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It's probably evidence that there is a conversation happening about United Ireland
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whether Donald Trump is a good spokesperson for that. He isn't. I don't want them to be on the same side as him
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But it's also, I suppose, the other point to make is that it's a lesson, again, for hardline unionists
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as Clare was joking about yesterday, for the DUP and for others probably on the right in Britain
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to choose your friends more carefully because people like Trump don't really leave your long-term interests at heart
3:53
I interviewed the former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar a little while ago, Matthew
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and he was talking about reflecting on his many meetings with Trump. And he said that when he was sort of explaining
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this was during the Brexit years, when he was president the first time, and he was talking about the need to try
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and obviate the need to have a hard border on the island of Ireland
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and all of these things trying to explain to the president the delicacies, how delicate the matters were
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And he said he was not convinced about two things from those conversations
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He wasn't convinced that the president actually was aware that Ireland was no longer part of the United Kingdom
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And he wasn't convinced either that if there were to be a wall, that it would be a massive problem
4:37
He just kept talking about how great walls were and how great Mexico the wall was in Mexico and how he was building that
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So the fact of the matter is is that I mean how seriously are we to take the protestations of a man who clearly almost certainly knows next to nothing about Irish history I think that a good point And I don think people who are in favour of a United Ireland or a New Ireland
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which is a term we use sometimes to kind of try and reflect the idea
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of this being a more inclusive project than, you know, a traditional territorial claim
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No, I don't think we should really set very much toward by Donald Trump. You know, I don't agree with Donald Trump on basically everything
5:15
He's an awful force in the world, I think. the decade that Trump has shaped world politics has been profoundly destabilizing. We've seen
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not just a cautioning of debate, but a genocide being enabled, in my view, a war being started
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this year, which is punishing ordinary people here in North America, too, in terms of just a
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whole range of awful things that he's unleashed upon the world. I think a more interesting and
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in a sense, much more substantive intervention was from Gordon Brown a couple of weeks ago
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where Gordon Brown said he thought some form of United Ireland was at some point inevitable
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Now, I don't necessarily think it is inevitable in the short or medium term
5:59
I think people like my party who want to make that happen need to be responsible and serious about how we make it happen
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and not assume that it will happen. But we also need to acknowledge that Gordon Brown is somebody of substance
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He was a very influential force in the 2014 Scottish referendum as a unionist, certainly as a unionist in relation to Scotland
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So I think there are other people who are acknowledging and understanding that things are changing on the island of Ireland
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We are having a conversation about the future. Northern Ireland at the minute simply isn't working the way it is
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As you said on your own list, I lead the opposition in Stormont. Nobody from any background thinks that the way our devolved politics
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is working in Northern Ireland is functioning at the minute. We're six months into the financial year and we don't have a budget
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There is a fundamental question about the viability of this jurisdiction because certainly the two big parties who govern at the minute
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don't really want to make it work, whether they're unionist or nationalist. So that's why many people are asking questions about the future
6:51
People like Gordon Brown, I think, are acknowledging that change and acknowledging some of the fundamental shifts that are happening
6:55
I would say a little bit more store by him than Donald Trump, albeit it is interesting that Trump has made these remarks
7:02
You're right to say we shouldn't be setting much store by him. Not least because Mishammer elections are coming up
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and there's a fair bit of speculation. A, he wants to discern the conversation or change the conversation
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from what the American news networks were talking about, but also what I was left of
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the sort of Irish American vote that still sort of homogeneously block in that way might go to him I think it probably a sign of a sense of vulnerability in parts of the English political establishment particularly the English right that Trump making this remark as he and others
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on the MAGA right have made about, for example, the Falklands. First of all, it's evidence
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of how idiotic it has been to ally yourself with this lunatic Trump. Secondly, I think
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it is evidence of the insecurity of parts of the right in Britain about a kind of status anxiety
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But none of that is an excuse for weighing in on Northern Ireland in a way which disrespects
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the provisions which you talked about earlier on of the Good Friday Agreement. People like me
7:59
have a right to pursue a new Ireland, just as my counterparts have a right to keep Northern Ireland
8:04
in the UK and pursue that goal. What's not right is prospective prime ministers or current prime
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ministers saying, kind of laying claim permanently and forever in a day as if this was an imperial
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possession that they had a right to. It's for the people of the island of Ireland, north and south
8:22
to say what happens here in Northern Ireland. And so I do worry that parts of the right, and I saw
8:27
all parts of the British right yesterday, slightly lose their proverbial whenever Trump, who they
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have cosied up to made this offhand remark from, can he be a knock right the way through to the appalling Rupert Lowe
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I don't think that's really about any interest in Northern Ireland or indeed the island of Ireland
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I think it's simply about status anxiety, insecurity about loss. They should have thought more carefully about hopping into bed politically
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with Donald Trump. Matthew O'Toole is leader of the opposition in the SDLP in Northern Ireland
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and MLA as well for Belfast. Thank you
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