President Trump said Saturday he would love to see a unified Ireland as he kicked off a visit to the country, where he will meet with leaders and attend a major golf tournament at one of his courses.

During a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin, Mr. Trump said the unification of the Republic of Ireland with Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, “may as well happen now.”

“I don’t want to cause any problems but I’d love to see it unified. I think it would be a fantastic thing,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “the U.K. will have something to say about it, obviously.”

When Ireland became a self-governing Roman Catholic-majority country a century ago, a six-county region in the north with a Protestant majority remained part of the United Kingdom. Tensions between Protestant unionists, who wanted to stay British, and Catholic nationalists, who wanted to join the rest of Ireland, led to three decades of violence. 

A 1998 peace accord that the U.S. was instrumental in striking largely ended the violence but left Northern Ireland’s ultimate status unresolved.

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham insisted last month that a unity referendum was “off the table,” drawing a sharp response from the pro-unity party Sinn Féin.

“As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic,” Gavin Robinson, leader of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, said on X in response to Mr. Trump’s comments.

Mr. Trump also held talks Saturday in Dublin with his Irish counterpart, Catherine Connolly. He addressed U.S. and Irish business leaders at the U.S. ambassador’s official residence in Dublin before traveling to his oceanfront golf club in Doonbeg, on the other side of the country, to watch the Irish Open.

Some residents expressed annoyance over the disruption caused by the U.S. president’s trip.

“He’s causing mayhem in this city because he wants to go down to Doonbeg and play golf,” said taxi driver Christopher Fox, emphatically not a fan of the president. “The world’s in turmoil and this fella’s down playing golf.”

University student Mina Petrovski said Mr. Trump’s “attitudes towards women, towards immigrants, towards minority communities in general are abhorrent.” She said it’s “shameful that the Irish government is welcoming him with open arms.”

Separately, a collection of left-leaning opposition parties, anti-military groups, pro-Palestinian organizations, environmentalists and others plan to demonstrate against the president in Dublin on Saturday.

Mr. Trump is an avid golfer who frequently plays at clubs he owns in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia. His attendance at the Irish Open continues his trend of appearing at high-profile sporting events – and having a hand in organizing some of them in ways that benefit his family business. His clubs in Doral, Florida, and Bedminster, New Jersey, have each hosted professional golf tournaments this year.

The Irish Open is the second European Tour event to be held at a Trump property this year. The Nexo Championship was held last month at the president’s golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland.