00:00What has the reaction been already to those comments, and what is the reaction likely to be both from the
00:05Irish and governments of the UK and Ireland?
00:08Well, I mean, I think, you know, put this in context, Trump is only spending a few hours in Dublin
00:14before he heads to his golf resort.
00:16Obviously, we're waiting for, we've seen those shots of the plane and waiting for him to depart.
00:21But even so, you know, he's managed to cause quite a bit of a stir here.
00:26There's protests being assembled in Dublin, hundreds of people.
00:30And that's even before he made these remarks.
00:32You know, so we're really, we're seeing, you know, some social media reaction to this.
00:38We're waiting to see a possible comment from the United Kingdom on the matter.
00:44You know, Trump made these remarks.
00:46I mean, he was answering a question by a reporter about the issue.
00:49It wasn't something he brought up extemporaneously.
00:52But it follows the assertion by the new UK Prime Minister, Burnham, that this issue of unification is off the
01:01table.
01:02Trump's comments are somewhat unusual for a U.S. president.
01:06Usually U.S. presidents strategically avoid, you know, explicitly addressing this.
01:11Of course, with Trump, we are used to him taking on issues in unexpected ways, obviously inserting himself into domestic
01:20policy disputes far from Washington.
01:23So nothing new there.
01:24But this is pretty notable on the island as he's visiting Dublin and heading to his golf course later today.
01:33Jen, talk about the groundwork that was laid ahead of this visit.
01:36What were the Irish expecting with the president traveling there?
01:38And I think there have been many moments when President Trump travels to Europe and European leaders kind of hold
01:43their breath collectively, wondering what he might say or might not say about the economy, about politics, about immigration.
01:50Did they have reason to this time around?
01:53Yeah, I mean, what's interesting is you're absolutely right.
01:56Many European countries have had to navigate this relationship in the second term with President Trump very carefully.
02:02Not all of them have done it so successfully.
02:04Ireland has been a little bit unusual in that regard.
02:08Taoiseach Martin, the prime minister of Ireland, has been able to—he's had multiple meetings with President Trump at the White
02:15House,
02:16and one of which led to this invitation and this visit to the country now.
02:21And he's managed to enjoy fairly warm relations with the U.S. president.
02:26He's managed to assuage some of President Trump's concerns about too much investment in the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland.
02:34Trump is obviously very concerned about balance of trade issues and wants to settle that.
02:38So it's really quite fascinating how Ireland has been able to avoid some of those blows and attacks that Trump
02:44has delivered against other European nations.
02:46Even so, you know, there were concerns ahead of this trip because Ireland is currently holding the rotating seat as
02:54host of the European Union.
02:55So it kind of is in the middle of a lot of these skirmishes.
02:59And, you know, President Connolly, Ireland's President Connolly, has been notable in her criticism of President Trump.
03:07She joined protests during his visit to the country back in 2019.
03:12She's been critical of the handling of Gaza.
03:15And so that was—Trump met with her today.
03:17It was behind closed doors.
03:18We don't know exactly how that preceded that meeting for about 20 minutes.
03:22But that was a potential flashpoint as well.
03:24Chenda-Louis, thank you very much.
03:25Appreciate Chenda-Louis traveling with the president in Ireland on a very brief trip, as she said.
03:29He traveling from Dublin to Shannon and to his golf course after that.
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