Yahoo News Donald Trump's recrudescence could see Northern Ireland relegated on US agenda
As the world woke up on Wednesday morning to the news that former US President Donald Trump had secured another term in office, it undoubtedly received a mixed reaction from political leaders in Northern Ireland.
While SDLP leader Claire Hanna took to X to share how she had "gurned" on the flight home from London to Belfast, DUP leader Gavin Robinson issued a statement wishing the President-elect well and saying that he believed ties between the US and Northern Ireland would "remain strong."
However, if we are to look at relations between the region and the Trump administration of 2016 to 2020, then we can see that when compared to other presidencies, they were frosty at best.
Unlike his recent predecessors or successor, Donald Trump chose not to visit Northern Ireland during his term in office and his only visit to the Republic came in 2019 when he met then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on a brief stop at his golf resort in Doonbeg where he compared the Irish border to his promised wall between the US and Mexico.
The US has historically played a significant role in Northern Ireland's peace process and while Trump did not personally focus much on Northern Ireland, officials in his administration did express support for maintaining peace and stability in the region. However, there was undoubtedly less emphasis compared to previous administrations on actively engaging with Northern Irish issues or any public diplomacy supporting the peace process.
Trump's administration had been strongly aligned with a pro-Brexit position which had led many to have concerns about the impact that this could have on the Good Friday Agreement. The President had been eager to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the UK post-Brexit and while this may have benefitted Northern Ireland economically, Trump's interest was driven more by US/UK interests than out of concerns for the Northern Irish economy.
Despite Trump's pro-Brexit stance, some US officials, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, warned that there would be no US/UK trade deal if Brexit undermined the Good Friday Agreement. Current Speaker Mike Johnson would be seen to be a close ally of Trump and would not be expected to make such an intervention.
During his time in office, President Trump had appointed Mick Mulvaney as the US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, before he resigned less than a year into the job following Trump's role in what he described as an "attempted coup" on January 6, 2021.
Mulvaney made one visit to the region for a meeting with the Secretary of State at Hillsborough Castle. Granted, this was during the Covid pandemic, his appointment came towards the end of the Trump presidency and the efforts paled in comparison to the current Special Envoy, Joe Kennedy III.
Then the issue of the annual St Patrick's Day celebrations comes into focus, during Trump's presidency, he initially opted to invite Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley Jr to the celebrations in the White House, overlooking the party's respective leaders in Northern Ireland and it wasn't until 2019 that Arlene Foster received an invite to the White House celebrations.
Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill is also on the record at stating that a letter sent by then First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, inviting President Trump to Northern Ireland was "no longer appropriate."
At the time of writing, there has been no official statement from the First and deputy First Minister to congratulate Donald Trump on his election, however speaking to the press on Wednesday, Michelle O'Neill wished him well and Emma Little Pengelly congratulated him on a "resounding result."
When it comes to foreign policy, Donald Trump has historically taken an insular approach, which, as he describes, puts "America first".
If, as nationalism desires, we're to have a border poll on a United Ireland by 2030, then that will require pressure to be placed on the UK Government by the US. Perhaps the only way they will achieve that under the Trump administration is to offer him one of our award-winning golf courses as a bargaining chip.
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