Canada

Ottawa, Monday, September 14, 2026. The Canadian press followed Donald Trump's trip to Ireland less for his statements on reunification than for what he said, at the same time, about the Canadian trade file. The American president stated on Saturday in Dublin, alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, that a unified Ireland would be "a fantastic thing" and that reunification "will eventually happen". The Democratic Unionist Party retorted that this would mean "the destruction of our country", reports CBC News. These comments break with the reserve maintained by his predecessors, including Joe Biden, on a file framed since 1998 by the Good Friday Agreement. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham had nonetheless dismissed, a few weeks earlier, the idea of a referendum on Northern Ireland's maintenance within the United Kingdom.

But for Canadian media, the most closely followed aspect of this trip is elsewhere. Questioned about trade relations, Trump assured that Canada "wants to conclude a very, very strong agreement", comparing, according to Global News, Ottawa's eagerness to that of Iran: "I hope Canada appreciates being mentioned in the same sentence as Iran." He repeated his grievances about agricultural trade, judging that Canada "must treat our farmers better", and hinted that an agreement could come "quite soon" if Ottawa gave in.

The contrast was accentuated when Trump announced, from the golf tournament at his Doonbeg estate, the upcoming lifting of tariffs on Irish whiskey, acclaimed by the crowd, while the 50% tariffs targeting many Canadian products remain in effect. A US ban targeting Canadian alcohol, certain dairy products, and motorcycles is set to come into effect on September 29, in response to the counter-tariffs announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney, after the failure of negotiations on heavy vehicles and French language rules.