DOMINANT ANGLE
Islamabad is particularly concerned about the protocol breach: a US president abandoning Washington's traditional neutrality on Irish unity, provoking the anger of Northern Irish unionists and a firm reminder from London of the Good Friday Agreement.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
In Dublin on Saturday, Trump said alongside Micheál Martin: "I'd like to see it unified" and "it's going to happen, I think it would be fantastic"
- 02
British Minister Angela Rayner responded on Sky News that London "takes the Good Friday Agreement very seriously", which leaves any referendum to the discretion of the British government
- 03
On Sunday, Trump visited his Doonbeg golf course, a property of the Trump Organisation that hosted the Irish Open, under heavy security and in front of about thirty protesters
ANALYSIS
Islamabad, Monday, September 14, 2026. International agencies reported by the Pakistani press give particular emphasis to the intervention of US President Donald Trump during his two-day visit to Ireland: a clear break with the neutrality that Washington traditionally observes on the issue of Irish unity.
According to Reuters, relayed on Saturday by ARY News, Trump stated in Dublin, seated alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin: "I don't want to cause problems, but I'm telling you, I'd like to see it unified." He added: "It's going to end up happening... I think it would be something fantastic." The President specified that "the UK will have its say" but maintained that reunification would be "a tremendous thing."
This statement comes a few weeks after new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham deemed a referendum on Northern Ireland's exit from the UK "out of the question" — a position that Downing Street reaffirmed on Saturday. British Minister Angela Rayner reacted on Sky News: "Donald Trump is Donald Trump, the President will say and think what he wants." However, she insisted: "we take the Good Friday Agreement very seriously."
This 1998 agreement, which ended three decades of violence between Irish nationalists and unionists, provides that a referendum can only be organized at the discretion of the British government. Polls show that a comfortable majority in Northern Ireland wants to remain in the UK, even if the gap has narrowed since Brexit. The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) rejected Trump's prediction.
Daily Times notes that the President then spent his Sunday playing golf and attending to his business interests in Doonbeg, where his Trump Organization-owned golf course hosted the Irish Open — the main reason for his trip, according to the article. About thirty protesters gathered near the site, under heavy police presence and closed roads.
For Pakistani media reporting on the episode, the retained image is that of a President mixing improvised diplomacy and defense of his own business interests, in a file where Washington had always refused to take sides.
