A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
During his weekend trip to Ireland, President Trump waded into an age-old conflict. Trump said he'd like to see the Republic of Ireland, an independent country, unite with Northern Ireland, which is governed by the British. It's an idea that fueled decades of deadly Catholic-Protestant fighting, known as the Troubles. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports on the fallout.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: President Trump told reporters in Dublin that Irish reunification would be, quote, "fantastic."
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: A great feather in everybody's cap if that happened.
FRAYER: The next day, the center-right Irish taoiseach, or prime minister, Micheal Martin, accompanying Trump to a golf tournament, told reporters there that he'd had to carefully explain to Trump how even though he himself also supports Irish unity, the status of Northern Ireland is laid out in the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998.
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MICHEAL MARTIN: And we went through various things, and how the British government, the Irish government working together enabled the peace.
FRAYER: And how he thinks even calling a referendum on the issue is not something to rush into. And the British government says any such vote is off the table anyway. Trump's comments sparked shock and a sense of betrayal in Northern Ireland among mostly Protestant British unionists who want to stay part of the United Kingdom. But in a case of strange bedfellows, the left-wing Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, which was linked in the past to those fighting for reunification, found itself agreeing with Trump, even though it rejects almost everything else in his politics. Sinn Fein's leader called Trump's comments evidence that the conversation has shifted. In London, British politicians on the left and right say they are in rare agreement, that Trump does not know what he's talking about.
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ANGELA RAYNER: Donald Trump is Donald Trump, and the president will say what - and speak his mind as he sees it. But, look, we're really serious about the Good Friday Agreement.
FRAYER: On Sky News, center-left Cabinet Minister Angela Rayner brushed off Trump's comments. Across the aisle, conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said of Trump.
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TOM TUGENDHAT: I suppose I knew he was a Republican. I didn't know he was that kind of a Republican.
FRAYER: Because in Northern Ireland, Republicans are those who support a republic, independence from Britain.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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