Unionism’s fetish for obstinately supporting foreign right-wing grifters has, for the umpteenth time, ended in humiliation. President Donald Trump, the first Orangeman to hold the office, has voiced his support for a United Ireland, joining the list of fickle ex-crushes that have snubbed Unionism in recent years. For many of Trump’s supporters in Ulster, this whole upset must’ve been very disorientating, akin to seeing Hulk Hogan step into the ring carrying a picture of Ho Chi Minh, only worse; their MAGA idol is a Lundy.
The genocidal paedophile billionaire had, up until today, commanded unwavering support among Loyalists, but now he’s a Fenian genocidal paedophile billionaire and, well, that’s just a bridge too far. When the bomb dropped in a Farmleigh House presser with Micheál Martin this morning, Unionist politicians scurried to X to declare it simply a gaffe or an attempt to play up to the paddies. But seeing as Trump voiced a stronger sentiment for a United Ireland than our own Taoiseach, and then doubled down on it, this cope doesn’t hold much water.
This is not the first time in recent years Unionism has been forced to do the walk of shame. In 2017, the DUP entered a confidence and supply agreement with Theresa May’s Tory government, aligning itself with a party it felt would stand firm on Unionist principles amid the tumult of Brexit. In 2019, May’s successor, Boris Johnson, assured the DUP in August of that year that he would not allow any deal that placed a customs border in the Irish Sea. By October of that year, he was signing just such a deal, throwing the DUP under that big red bus in favour of getting Brexit done.
The DUP’s Sea Border palaver pushed more militant sections of Loyalism away from the Tories and into the arms of Nigel Farage and the Reform Party. In 2024, Jim Allistair’s TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice) entered an electoral alliance with Reform in an effort to unseat DUP heavyweight, Ian Paisley Junior. Though Allistair succeeded, his run was almost scuppered when Farage reneged on the alliance and backed his “beer buddies” in the DUP instead.
This morning the movement found itself jilted again by none other than America’s Evangelical-in-chief and progenitor of the odious MAGA movement; a man that loyalism has deified since 2016. Yet, all the glazing and honouring the Kirkiversary has come to nought. The Don wants a UI, and Loyalism has been shown its irrelevance yet again.
There’s probably truth to the claims that this is just more noise from a man who can’t shut the fuck up. But Trump’s statement that a United Ireland would be “a feather in everyone’s cap “ should give Unionist politicians pause. A US president who seems to be sniffing around for such feathers everywhere from Korea to Latin America, and who could really use the votes of the 34.5 million or so Irish Americans in the upcoming midterms, could easily stick his snout right into the affairs of Unionists, particularly if he’s unhappy with Downing Street — which he certainly seems to be.
But more than anything, this incident hammers home the hopelessness of Loyalism as an ideology capable of garnering widespread support, nationally or internationally, ever again. The writing is on the wall; the decline is terminal. When even the likes of Trump, a man who Loyalists idolised until this morning, turns Lundy, it’s time to question the point of it all. At least they won’t have to order in any MAGA flags for next year’s Twelfth; they can simply pull them down from the lamp posts this evening as they set about looking for the next heartbreak.
