Trump Says Irish Unification Would Be ‘Fantastic,’ Breaking With Precedent

NEW: Trump says a united Ireland would be 'fantastic' during his visit to Dublin, breaking with decades of official US neutrality on Irish unification.

Donald Trump just called a united Ireland fantastic, out loud, in Dublin. That's not a small thing. American presidents have spent decades treading around Irish unification like it was a landmine, official neutrality, always. He just stepped on it, and you can see him here making the remarks on his visit.

Why does it matter what Washington thinks? Because the Good Friday Agreement, the deal that keeps the peace, had American fingerprints all over it, and both London and Dublin listen when a president leans one way. Downing Street will not enjoy this one, and in Belfast, where the whole question actually lives, unionists will hear it as pressure.

One sentence, and a hundred years of careful diplomatic silence just got noisier. The border poll conversation was already simmering. Trump may have just turned up the heat under it.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.