President Trump's Irish merger comment just banter, Little-Pengelly says

By Rebecca Black, Press Association in Washington DC

US president Donald Trump’s suggestion of an Irish merger was “just banter”, the North's deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has said.

It came at the start of the president’s address to the annual Speakers’ Friends of Ireland Luncheon at Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Mr Trump had been welcoming some of the notable guests to the event, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Northern Ireland’s deputy First Minister, Ms Little-Pengelly, when he observed: “They get along so well.”

Looking towards the two, he added: “I saw that, you get along very well together, I don’t know if I should be promoting merger, I love mergers.”

As most in the room laughed, Mr Trump added: “We’re going to get into more trouble with that than the beauty”, in reference to a comment he had made earlier describing a woman he had called out as beautiful.

Speaking on Tuesday, Ms Little-Pengelly said it had been clear it was a joke.

“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.

“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.”

Ms Little-Pengelly described a “hugely positive” visit, during which she met Mr Trump at the luncheon, and also had a meeting with him at the White House.

She also had meetings across Washington DC, describing the engagement as “incredibly important”, adding that “no business deal or university funding collaborations announced happen from one single pitch”, but due to relationships being built over years.

“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.

“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.”

Asked whether First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who declined to go to the White House in protest at US policy on Gaza, had been missed, Ms Little-Pengelly said: “It hasn’t been mentioned really to me in terms of my engagement.”

Alliance leader Naomi Long and SDLP leader Claire Hanna also stayed away from the White House.

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."