Trump Stirs diplomatic controversy on Ireland visit

DOONBEG

AP Photo

Donald Trump turned his focus yesterday to golf and promoting his business interests, as he wrapped up a two-day visit to Ireland during which his off-the-cuff diplomacy has caused another stir.

The U.S. president caught his Irish hosts and the neighboring U.K. off-guard on Sept. 12 when he waded into highly sensitive political territory by announcing he would “love to see” a united Ireland.

Breaking with Washington’s traditional neutrality on the historically charged topic, Trump argued reunification of the Republic of Ireland and U.K. territory Northern Ireland, after more than a century apart, was “going to happen eventually.”

“It may as well happen now,” he ventured as he met Irish prime minister Micheal Martin in Dublin, prompting pushback from pro-U.K. loyalists in Northern Ireland and some leading politicians in mainland Britain.
“Donald Trump is Donald Trump and the president will say and speak his mind as he sees it,” U.K. minister
Angela Rayner told Sky News yesterday.

“But look, we’re really serious about the Good Friday Agreement,” she added, referring to the 1998 peace accords that largely ended three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

It stipulates that a referendum on Irish unity can be held if the U.K. government determines a majority there is likely in favor. Republic of Ireland voters would also need to back it in a separate poll.

Within hours of his surprise intervention on the issue, Trump had touched down in Doonbeg, on the country’s west coast, where his Trump Organization-owned golf course was hosting the Irish Open.

The American leader attended the tournament yesterday, the main reason for the trip, before departing for Washington later in the day.

Martin assured him at Saturday’s meeting that Doonbeg’s 784 residents were “very grateful” for the Trump Organization’s investment there after it bought the site in 2014, insisting that his family were “welcome” there.
The U.S. president is joined in the remote corner of Ireland by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr, who have managed the family business since their 80-year-old father returned to the White House last year.

The former real estate magnate, who promotes its enterprises at every opportunity, told Martin that Doonbeg was “one of the greatest courses in the world.” The golf-mad president plays the game most weekends at one of his family’s U.S. properties.

He is even scheduled to host December’s G20 summit at his Miami golf resort.

Opposition Democrats in the US have long complained that blurring the lines between his presidency and personal business interests is corrupt, while some have called for an investigation into insider trading and market manipulation claims.

The White House has aggressively pushed back against claims of conflicts of interest and that Trump has been using his presidency to enrich himself.