The US president said it was ‘going to happen eventually, it may as well happen now’.
Unionist leaders in Northern Ireland have criticised US President Donald Trump after he said he would “love to see” a United Ireland.
Mr Trump was speaking alongside Taoiseach Micheál Martin when he was asked for his view on a united Ireland, and said it was “going to happen eventually, it may as well happen now”.
Later, speaking at the US ambassador’s residence in Ireland, Mr Trump discussed the Press Association’s question, saying: “They’re going for the kill at all times, and they ask me a question: ‘What do you think about unification of Northern Ireland and Ireland?’
“That was one of the questions. But I actually said it would be, I think, a very cool thing. To be honest with you, I think it would be cool.”
Earlier this year, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham sparked a political row on the island of Ireland when he said a unity referendum is “off the table”.
Under the terms of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the UK secretary of state can decide to hold a border poll, and it also places a duty on the office holder to call one if it appears likely a majority would vote for Irish unification.
The people of the Republic of Ireland must also vote in favour to effect constitutional change.
Republican party Sinn Féin has boycotted the annual St Patrick’s day visit to Washington for the last two years over the current administration’s stance on the Middle East.
However, Northern Ireland’s leading unionist parties, the DUP and UUP, have continued to attend and engage with Mr Trump, and the DUP Communities Minister Gordon Lyons hosted an event on Capitol Hill to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
On Saturday DUP leader Gavin Robinson posted on X: “President Trump knows better than most that elections matter.
“Northern Ireland’s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.
“Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people.
“I am confident NI will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers. As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic.”
TUV leader Jim Allister said Mr Trump “is not the first US president to meddle in the affairs which don’t concern him”.
He added: “Northern Ireland is not a pawn in Trump’s fall-out with the UK. Our constitutional future does not depend on him or any other foreign dignitary.”
Ulster Unionist Party Leader Jon Burrows MLA said the US president “like anyone else in the world, is entitled to express his view on the constitutional future of another country”.
“But the only people whose decision counts are the people of Northern Ireland,” he said.
“That is the principle of consent, now enshrined in law through the Belfast Agreement, negotiated and delivered by the Ulster Unionist Party.
“America has been, and remains, an important ally, from the Second World War and the global fight against terrorism to the defence of democracy around the world. Their businesses increasingly see that our workforce here is the best in the world.
“But when all is said and done, Northern Ireland’s future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland.
“I am confident that we are safer, more secure and more prosperous within the United Kingdom, and that is where we will remain.”
Former SDLP leader and MP for Foyle Colum Eastwood, an open critic of the US president, shared a clip of Mr Trump’s remarks on social media adding: “Always liked him.”
UUP MLA Robbie Butler MLA said there was a “sudden conversion” from some of Mr Trump’s opponents.
“For years we have been told this president is beyond the pale: his character, his conduct, his position on Gaza,” he said.
“Some of those now cheering him boycotted the White House over it. One sentence about a united Ireland and he is apparently a statesman of rare vision.
“It seems his judgment is sound only on the one subject where it happens to suit. The cherry picking is at least consistent.”
