Amidst all the chaos going on in the world today it would have been easy to miss President Trump’s recent golfing trip to Ireland. During the trip Trump was asked about whether he would like to see a united Ireland and he said, quite enthusiastically, that he would. He was asked a few more times by the press to clarify this position – presumably to ensure that he was signalling a genuine desire rather than trying to please the room – and he confirmed that he would like to see a united Ireland. Later Trump was asked if he would like to see an independent Scotland to which Trump responded that he would “save that for another day” and that he “won’t talk about Scotland yet”. “Yet” was the operative word that people seized on.
The British press tried to push Trump’s statements to the back pages and play down their importance. But the Scottish and Irish nationalist press picked them up. So too the American press. “UK Breakup Push Escalates”, read a Fox News headline. The Chinese media covered it too. “Is the UK Heading Toward a Breakup”, read the headline on the CPC-aligned Global Times. Despite the attempt to downplay the story in Britain itself, when the First Ministers of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales met to discuss future independence The Telegraph couldn’t help itself. “Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish leaders meet to plan break-up of United Kingdom” was the headline on that story.
