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The 1998 Good Friday Agreement was brokered with U.S. help and was built around the principles of consent and parity between British unionism and Irish nationalism. It largely ended three decades of conflict known as the Troubles, established the current system of government in Northern Ireland, and largely removed visible signs of the border.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland remains part of the U.K. unless voters in Northern Ireland choose reunification and voters in Ireland approve the constitutional change. This framework places democratic consent at the center of its constitutional future rather than the preferences of London, Dublin, or Washington.

According to a 10 Downing Street spokesperson, Prime Minister Andy Burnham's position remains unchanged: a referendum on a united Ireland is "off the table" because he is not aware of majority public support for one. Burnham is committed to upholding the Good Friday Agreement.

Unionists in Northern Ireland and politicians in Westminster condemned the remarks. Gavin Robinson, the Democratic Unionist Party leader representing East Belfast in Parliament, stated on X that Northern Ireland's constitutional future must be decided by its own people rather than commentary from London, Dublin, or Washington, asserting that Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. due to the settled democratic will of its people. Additionally, Robert Jenrick of Nigel Farage's Reform Party stated that Trump was "completely wrong" and that Northern Ireland is and will always be a proud part of the United Kingdom.

Trump broke with a longstanding U.S. presidential convention of not taking sides on whether Northern Ireland should ultimately be British or Irish. For example, former President Clinton, whose administration was central to the peace process, explicitly stated that the U.S. was "neither in favor of a united Ireland nor opposed to the idea."

While sitting beside Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin on a Saturday, Trump stated he would "love to see" Ireland unified, suggesting that because it "is going to happen eventually," it "may as well happen now." He described the prospect of uniting Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland as "fantastic" and "a very cool thing," noting that while the U.K. would obviously have something to say about it, he believes it would be a "great thing."