US President Donald Trump’s remark about a possible Irish merger was “just banter”, according to Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, reports Breaking News.
The comment was made at the beginning of the president’s address to the annual Speakers’ Friends of Ireland Luncheon on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, reports Breaking News.
Mr Trump was welcoming notable attendees, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Ms Little-Pengelly, when he noted that “they get along so well.”
Looking towards them, he added: “I saw that, you get along very well together, I don’t know if I should be promoting merger, I love mergers,” reports Breaking News.
As the audience laughed, Mr Trump continued: “We’re going to get into more trouble with that than the beauty”, referring to an earlier remark in which he had described a woman as beautiful.
Speaking afterwards, Ms Little-Pengelly said it was clearly intended as a joke, reports Breaking News.
“It’s absolutely just a bit of banter, anybody who watches his speeches knows that he highlights people in the room and has a bit of banter with them, it’s very much his style,” she said.
“But what I think it does indicate is that he recognises that Northern Ireland is in the room, he recognises the political context, and I think that has come about because of that political engagement of Northern Ireland being present, being here, turning up, standing up, speaking up, championing Northern Ireland,” reports Breaking News.
“Of course, we can never control what the president thinks, or what the president will say, of course we don’t, many many people have very strong views on the president, including myself, a number of times I would disagree with what he says on a range of issues – but ultimately I am here to champion Northern Ireland, and I think that we’ve done that very well this week.”
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Ms Little-Pengelly described the visit as “hugely positive”, during which she met Mr Trump at the luncheon and later at the White House, reports Breaking News.
She also held meetings across Washington DC, describing the engagement as “incredibly important” and noting that major business or academic collaborations are built over time rather than from a single pitch.
“We really genuinely get unparalleled access, I had a brief conversation with the president at the Speakers’ Luncheon before our meeting at the White House later,” she said, reports Breaking News.
“For me it was all about making sure that Northern Ireland was on his radar in a very positive way, so I talked about why we are here this week. I think the fact that Northern Ireland got that call out, both at the Speakers’ luncheon but even in the White House, that’s a really positive indication, it’s getting into the speeches, getting into the drafters of those speeches, people making decisions, they’re aware that we are here this week and what we’re trying to achieve.
“I outlined that the Northern Ireland economy is growing, there is so much potential for Northern Ireland, and referred back to the very long and shared history and heritage that we have as well, from all of those Ulster-Scots or Scots-Irish, so instrumental in the drafting and, of course, the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Those were the people who very much built America,” reports Breaking News.
When asked whether First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who chose not to attend the White House in protest over US policy on Gaza, had been missed, Ms Little-Pengelly said it had not been raised during her engagements.
Alliance leader Naomi Long and SDLP leader Claire Hanna also did not attend the White House events, reports Breaking News.
Ms Little-Pengelly added: “I do think that it is not just about the meeting with the president, there are so many different events this week that I think it is important for me to be here, to attend, to speak at because if you’re not in the room, you don’t have a seat round the table, if you’re not there championing your interests, somebody else will take that opportunity, fighting for that benefit for their jurisdiction.”, reports Breaking News.
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