Trump: US president’s comments on a united Ireland may have targeted an audience across the Atlantic

Giving an answer to a question that is asked at a free-flowing press conference is one thing, but Donald Trump repeated his sentiments a short time later when he was delivering a speech to an invited audience at the US Ambassador’s residence. In fact it was almost the first thing he mentioned, hinting that maybe he realised he had kicked over a can of worms at his earlier appearance.The rest of that speech was curious. It was billed as a 20-minute address to Irish and Irish American business leaders, but was about twice that and strayed largely into domestic US matters.President Trump has a speaking style that he describes himself as “the weave”. He can bounce from topic to topic during any speaking engagement, veering off the script and then returning to the matter at hand. Today he lauded his own achievements, as he sees them, such as clamping down on illegal immigration, doing deals and boosting defence production. He repeated his criticisms once again of what he views as the UK’s lack of support for his military operation in Iran.